Remember the Night
by skygirl55
Summary: Seeing Richard Castle for the first time in a decade? Yeah, she could totally handle that...right? (Rick & Kate met in college AU)
1. Prologue

_Seeing Richard Castle for the first time in a decade? Yeah, she could totally handle that...right?_

 _(Rick & Kate met in college AU)_

 _Please note: most ages/birth dates have been changed from canon. Prologue + 12 chapters + epilogue_

* * *

 **Prologue**

 _April 2009_

Shifting her weight between her right foot and left and then back again, Kate Beckett closed her eyes. She inhaled a long, slow breath through her nose and pushed it out evenly through o-shaped lips. She had absolutely had no reason to be nervous. In fact being nervous at that moment felt completely irrational, yet no matter how many times she told herself that, her stomach still fluttered uncontrollably every few moments.

Balling her hand to a fist, she dug her knuckles into the fleshy part of her abdomen just below her ribcage in a futile attempt to dissipate yet another clench. Get a grip Kate, she coached, closing her eyes and taking in another deep breath. She had to get a hold of herself if for no other reason than she would be in line for at least another…well she wasn't entirely sure. Dipping her fingers into her back jeans pocket she procured her phone and clicked the home button to bring up the display. 10:41 meaning she had been in line for just over an hour. That certainly explained why her toes were beginning to cramp up in her boots. Sighing, she shifted to her left and lifted her right foot, rolling the ankle clockwise a few times then switching directions. Putting her foot down, she shifted her weight again and mirrored her actions on the opposite side.

Not a minute later the hum of the crowd in which she stood began to hush and a booming male voice could be heard. "Attention everyone waiting for the Richard Castle book signing," the man began. Though she couldn't see him, she presumed he was using a bullhorn or other auditory enhancement device in order to be heard over the ambient noises of the New York City streets. "We will begin the signing as soon as Mr. Castle arrives, which should be in about 15 minutes. Just a few things to go over: First, please make sure you are standing against the building so we don't obstruct the sidewalk. Second, please make sure if you are in this line that you are wearing your gold wristband. This is a sold-out event and if you do not have a wristband, you will not get in. Third, please be aware Mr. Castle will not be taking pictures with fans at this event; this event is autographs only. Thank you."

Per instruction, Kate pressed herself tightly against the exterior wall of the Barnes & Noble building. She adjusted her shoulder bag so it hung more comfortably in front of her. Fifteen minutes, she thought as her stomach flipped again. Well, probably more like half an hour since she was about one quarter of the way down the line of chattering Castle fans that Saturday morning.

"Wrist bands, please; we need to see your wrist bands."

Kate shook her left arm so the gold band she picked up the prior evening fell from beneath the sleeve of her jacket. She displayed it to the bookstore employee as he walked past; the man nodded in acknowledgement and continued down the line.

"Oh this is just so exciting!"

Kate turned to her left to smile politely at the gushing woman. She stood nearly a foot shorter than Kate in her heeled boots, her hair thin and graying, a well-worn pocketbook clutched tightly to her breast. "Richard Castle! We're really going to get to meet him!"

"Yeah," she said with a polite laugh.

"I only started reading his novels recently. Well, about a year ago. My sister gave me one—the first Derrick Storm—and I fell in love. Since then I've read everything he's done. He's just such a great storyteller! And handsome too! Do you think he's as handsome in real life as he is on his book covers?

"Even more so," Kate said barely above a murmur

Despite her apparent age, the woman clearly didn't have hearing trouble for she gasped. "You've done this before?"

"A signing? No, but I've met him."

The woman's eyes grew wide and her expression turned to one of reverence. "How? Where?"

Kate quirked one side of her lips in a half-smile. "It was a very long time ago, actually."

The woman clasped her hands in front of her as though she was praying, or blessing Kate. "Oh how exciting! Maybe he'll remember you."

"Maybe," Kate said, her gut clenching so tightly that time she actually turned away from the woman so she could not see the grimace on her face.

Digging the heel of her hand into her abdomen once more, Kate shut her eyes. Of course the woman would have had no way of knowing she hit Kate's greatest fears on the head. She'd been going back and forth for days—weeks even, but still couldn't decide what was worse: Richard Castle not recognizing her and treating her no differently than any other fan or Richard Castle recognizing her their encounter turning awkward.

As she stood chewing on her bottom lip contemplating that exact dilemma, the breeze kicked up and blew a chunk of her hair straight into her lip gloss. Great. Delicately, she began removing the strands and smoothing them back into place. She was so distracted, in fact, that she failed to realize the line was moving until she felt a little nudge from the woman behind her, who said, "Move up dear."

Kate mumbled a thank you as her heart lurched. Up ahead, she could see a line of fans filtering into the store which meant the man of the hour had arrived. Kate Beckett squared her shoulders and stepped forward in line. Seeing Richard Castle for the first time in nearly a decade? Yeah she could totally handle that.

Right?

* * *

 _A/N: That's all for now kids! And, as promised, this fic is pretty darn fluffy if I do say so myself. Updates will be Saturdays and Wednesdays. Reviews are appreciated! Thanks! :)_


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N: Wow thank you guys so much for your amazing response to the prologue! Now on to Chapter 1 - please note the dates!_

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 _November 1999_

"C'mon Katie—you promised!" The bright eyed blonde girl insisted as she walked backwards down the sidewalk facing her brunette friend. The accompanying girl, dressed in boots, jeans, and a black sweater looked as though she was being dragged along by a tether due to her unenthusiastic expression and sluggish pace.

"I know, I know," Kate Beckett sighed, speeding her walk just enough so she could keep up with her companion. "I'm coming—but I swear I'm leaving at midnight if this ends up being horrible. I mean it, Maddie."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "I know, I know, because NYU parties are so uncool."

"It's not that," Kate said matter-of-factly. NYU parties…Columbia parties…they were all pretty much the same at that point: excessive drinking, loud music, unpleasant smells. A year ago, when she was fully entrenched in her "Rebel Bex" alter ego, she would have been all about this party, but she'd grown up a lot in the prior eleven months. Things had happened. She had changed.

"I swear you're going to have fun and that is one thing you desperately need."

Kate clicked her tongue at her longtime friend. "I have fun; I am fun!"

Maddie arched a skeptical eyebrow. "Yeah, when you're not buried under all those textbooks."

"Pre-law is a difficult major."

The blonde raised her hands defensively. "Hey, I'm not saying I could do it, but I don't want you to get burnt out, Katie." She reached over and stroked her friends arm. "One night won't kill you."

With a nod, Kate followed Maddie inside the apartment building apparently housing NYU's finest frat boys. Per expectations, the music was loud, a cloud of cigarette smoke hung permanently in the air and, if she was not mistaken, in a distant corner someone was doing a keg stand. Lovely.

While Maddie went directly to the keg, Kate detoured from her friend in hopes of finding an area not permeated with secondhand smoke. She tip-toed her way through the tight-packed hallway towards what appeared to be a stairwell. Unsurprisingly, it was also packed, but she managed to worm her way through the crowd and begin the ascent. She'd made it just past the first landing when three boys whooping loudly came charging her way. Kate quickly tried to flatten herself against the stairwell railing, but it was too late; in the haste and carelessness, the boys crashed into her. Knocked off balance, the heel to her boot slipped off the stair and she began tumbling backwards. Her right hand shot out to the handrail and gripped on, but only loosely, not enough to stop her fall. Just as she was bracing for impact, she found herself crushed against something warm and heard a voice say, "Whoa, careful."

With her descent slowed, Kate was able to grip tighter to the stairwell handle and land both feet solidly on the stairs. At the same time, the man behind her gripped her beneath the armpits and shoved her to an upright position. "You okay?" he asked.

Kate turned to see a tall, broad-chested man with sandy-brown hair and shiny blue eyes. He was handsome, but that didn't mean much to her. For all she knew, he could have been just like the fratboy idiots who plowed into her a moment earlier. Well, she supposed, he was fractionally nicer as he didn't let her fall on her ass, but that didn't mean he wasn't an idiot. "I, ah, yeah—thanks."

Before she could turn and continue her ascent, the man's hand landed on her forearm and she gasped, quickly shrugging off the touch. "Sorry—I…I just wanted to make sure."

"I'm fine," Kate responded, her tone a little sharper that time.

"Ok…well, can I get you a drink then?" he offered with a polite smile.

Kate shook her head. "Not interested." Then, before he could get another word in, she jogged up the remaining stairs and disappeared into the crowd on the second floor. Glancing down at her watch she realized it was barely ten p.m. Did she really have to make it all the way to midnight?

* * *

An hour later, Kate waited impatiently in an impossibly long line at a second floor bathroom. She had visited two other apartments and found their restroom lines equally as long. A third had no line, but appeared too filthy for her to even bother crossing the threshold. She did not have high hopes for this forth, obviously well-used bathroom, but assuming she didn't have to wade through vomit on her way to the toilet, she would deal with it. Honestly, she had considered just leaving the party all together, but she knew her bladder would not make the half hour trek uptown.

Folding her arms over her chest, Kate checked her watch for what felt like the dozenth time in the prior five minutes. She drummed her fingertips against her opposite forearm and pressed one hip out to the side, then the other, attempting anything to distract herself from the discomfort she felt. As if a cosmic power knew she needed a distraction, not fifteen seconds later she heard, "Oh, hey. We meet again."

Flicking her eyes to her left, Kate spotted the grinning, purple NYU shirt wearing man who had caught her and stopped her from falling down the stairs. Great, just great, she thought to herself. She had zero interest in talking to yet another man who was just going to hit on her, but what choice did she have? She was trapped there in line for she knew changing lines and having to wait even longer for a restroom just might make her explode.

"Hi," she said, merely for politeness sake. Then, she turned and faced forward in line, hoping he'd get the hint. He did not.

"I'm Rick, by the way; I don't think I ever got your name."

"I don't think I gave it," she replied, still not looking at him.

"You can easily change that."

She glanced to her left and spotted his ruggedly handsome grin. It made her heart do a fluttering thing in her chest that made her angry. "It's Kate," she said, against her better judgement.

"Kate," he repeated. "Lovely to meet you. So…what's your major?"

Ah, she thought; the least creative pick up line in the history of colleges. "Pre-law."

"Ohh interesting," he commented, tucking his hands into his front jean pockets. He skimmed his gaze down her face before nodding in approval. "I can see it; you'd make a good lawyer."

Rounding her shoulders, she shook her head at him. "You cannot possibly know that."

"Sure I can," he said proudly. "Writer's instincts."

Arching one eyebrow she questioned, "Writer?"

"I'm a novelist."

Kate fought the urge to laugh out loud. Instead, the noise came out as a small blip. "Are you?"

He leaned away from her as his brow furrowed. "You don't believe me?"

"No, I'm sorry—of course you're a novelist."

Though she did not tack an eye roll onto the end of her statement, with the tone she used, she may as well have. "What does that mean?" the writer questioned, trying to figure out whether or not he should feel insulted.

Throwing her hands down at her side, Kate turned to face him. "It means I've met tons of guys just like you. 'I'm a poet.' 'I'm an actor,'" she mocked in a tone deeper than her own. "What that really means is you're going to pay a hundred thousand dollars for an education and end up the assistant manager of a _Dunkin' Donuts_."

"Wow." Rick folded his arms over his chest as he gazed down at her. "That's quite a cynical view of the world you have there, Kate."

She merely shrugged and took one step forward in line. Great—only five people in front of her now. "It's a realistic view," she said, though she refused to acknowledge the man may have had a small point. So it wasn't poets or actors she went after. No, back when she was Rebel Bex, musicians had been her drug of choice. How many men had she meant who _swore_ they would be the next Kurt Cobain, but yet there they were, playing Friday nights in the grossest bar she'd ever been in. They'd written songs about her, promised her they were mere weeks from their big breaks, but it always ended the same. She was back in that seedy bar, bored and frustrated until the day she simply refused to return. Then, on to the next one. Well, that's what would have happened, but thankfully those days were long behind her; she had definitely learned that lesson.

"Well this is New York," the writer said. Kate turned to him, somewhat surprised he had not walked away. "There are thousands of people trying to make it as actors or playwrights or any number of careers. Just because they haven't been published or haven't had the lead role in a Broadway play doesn't mean their career choice is invalid; it doesn't make it any less real."

Again, she shrugged. "I suppose."

"That being said…" Rick began, his tone taking an enticing upturn. "I have actually published a novel."

Kate considered his statement a moment. It certainly was a bold choice for him to make because it could more easily be proven (or disproven) than saying something more like, "I'm working on getting something published," or "I'm still writing, but I swear I'll get this published one day." Interesting. "Really?" she asked out of minor curiosity.

"Yes, really. I can show you, too. My apartment is upstairs and you can see."

That time, Kate did laugh. Oh, he was smooth—she'd give him that. He almost had her—almost. "Oh, I get it now. Thanks, Rick, but I don't think so."

Confused by her sudden cold shoulder, he asked, "What? Why?"

"'My apartment is upstairs,'" she parroted back, mimicking his tone. "I'll at least give you credit for the pickup line. I never heard "I'm a novelist, come see my book," before. Bet that works on a lot of women, doesn't it?"

"Wha—no. No!" the writer said quickly, the slightest hint of a blush on his cheeks. "No, I was being serious. I do have a book and you can see it. I wasn't trying to trick you into my bedroom. Honestly, Kate; I wasn't. Besides…I also have a bathroom."

As Kate's bladder throbbed uncomfortably, she trapped her bottom lip between her teeth, considering.

Sensing she needed more of a push, Rick continued. "I absolutely swear I have no impure intentions. In fact, you can come up and use the bathroom, see the book and then come right back to the party—no strings attached."

After ten seconds more of thought, Kate shook her head, slipping her hands into her back pockets as she looked at him. "I'm sorry if this sounds particularly bitchy, but: no, thanks. I don't know you—we just met—and I don't feel comfortable going back to your apartment with you."

Rick bobbed his head. "That's fair and I don't think that makes you bitchy. Have a good evening, Kate; it was a pleasure to meet you."

"Ah, yeah," she said as he turned away, almost surprised he didn't put up more of a fight. "You too."

He flashed her one more smile and then disappeared into the packed crowed.


	3. Chapter 2

_Please note the date - the story is still in flashback :)_

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

 _November 1999—continued_

Two people. Just Two people to go until it was her turn in the bathroom. Of course, at the rate the line was moving, it would probably take another fifteen minutes at least. Kate just needed to distract herself. She just needed- "Wha—oh my god," she gasped when a book appeared in front of her face. _In a Hail of Bullets by Richard Castle_ was printed in black lettering on the sky blue front cover.

Her jaw slightly gape, Kate rotated her head towards the left and spotted the purple shirt wearing man from a few minutes earlier. He gave her a dopey smile. "Had a hunch you might still be in line."

"Oh my god," she commented again, taking the book from his grasp. Skimming her hands over the front cover, she rotated it to look at the binding on the left side. No words were printed there. Odd. Flipping it over, she took note there was no printing there either. Stranger yet. Just to be sure it really was a book, she held it in her left hand and fanned it open with her right thumb and found that there was indeed text inside. Looking to her left once more she commented, "This is a real book."

"It is," he said, smiling a bit prouder.

"Did…did you publish it yourself?" she asked, trying to find an explanation for the strange looking cover. As she did so, she took a step forward in line.

"No, no," he said quickly. "This is just the first draft they sent me to review. It doesn't have cover art yet and won't go into actual production until I approve that. So…before Christmas? Should be in stores by spring."

"Oh wow, Rick," she said, her smile turning warm for the first time since meeting him. "This is so…awesome!"

"Thanks," he chuckled, taking the book back from her. "It was a lot of work and I had a lot of rejection but it all finally came together."

"That's great. I—oh," she stopped when she realized the bathroom was free and it was her turn.

"Go ahead," he said. "I'll wait."

* * *

Two minutes later Kate emerged from the bathroom and searched the immediate area for the writer. He was not standing against the wall across from the bathroom where she'd left him, so where had he gotten to? She could hardly believe after all that effort he walked away because he didn't wait to wait a few minutes for her. Scanning the crowd to her right she finally spotted him, leaning against the back edge of a crowded sofa, the book tucked under one arm.

Kate approached with a smile. Okay, so maybe she had been a bit harsh with him at first. She had been known to take a protective stance against men who were hitting on her simply because they found her attractive and would say anything to get her into bed with them. With Rick, that clearly wasn't the case. While it remained to be seen if he wanted to get her into bed, it didn't seem as though he had lied to her. Plus, she found him interesting.

"Hi."

He looked up at her and smiled, "Hey. Sorry had to get out of the way of the hall."

She waved her hand casually indicating it was fine. Then, gesturing towards the book she asked, "What's it about it?"

"Oh," he said looking down at the item then back up at her. "It's, ah, a mystery; I write mysteries."

She pushed her lips together tightly, fighting a laugh. He said the sentence as though that fact was embarrassing—as if he said he wrote documentaries about earth worms or something equally silly. "I like mysteries, Rick."

His expression turned hopeful. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm a pre-law major, so right now I don't read much of anything except case law books or legal texts, but during the summer or when I need a break. I read lots of different books."

"Awesome! Well, see, there's this guy…" And then Rick launched into a several minute, highly detailed explanation of his lead character and the premise on which the book was set. Kate could not help but smile wider and wider as the moments passed. The more he explained, the larger and more defined his hand and arm gestures became. It was clear he spoke with a strong passion for his works; he truly was a writer.

When he'd finished by sheepishly saying he didn't want to give away any more of the plot, Kate said, "That sounds great—really. I'll definitely buy a copy when it comes out."

"Give me your address and I'll send you a signed one. You never know—one day it could be worth millions."

She chuckled at the way he waggled his eyebrows at her. "I'm sure. I'm, ah, going to get a drink—you want anything?"

* * *

Twenty minutes later Rick stood off to the side of the kitchen of a random second floor apartment in his building completely unable to believe his luck. How was it possible that he had not only found the most beautiful girl at that evening's party, but that she was speaking with him, laughing with him? At the beginning of the night, he found himself only attending the event because it was in his building which, quite frankly, meant it would be too loud to get any writing done that night. Sure, he was all about a good party now and then, but on the cusp of being published, he really wanted to knuckle down and get serious about his work. He did not want to squander any opportunities presented to him and with a publisher offering to look at a second novel he sure as hell wanted to make sure it was a great one. Still, like any twenty-year-old he needed a break now and then, which was why he'd descended into the smoky haze of the celebration. Then, she happened.

Rick was not surprised in the least when, after he assisted her on the stairs, she blew him off. He was used to beautiful girls blowing him of—but that didn't mean he didn't try to be nice to them, try to flirt with them. Odds were he'd succeed eventually which was why when he saw her waiting for the bathroom he had to try again. She was too stunning for him not to. Hazel eyes, cheek-bones that could be seen for miles and perfect pink lips he just wanted to run his thumb across.

When she'd attempted to dismiss him for the second time with her cynicism towards his profession, he needed to prove her wrong as a sense of pride. By that point, he viewed his potential success rate as less than fifteen percent, yet there he stood, chatting and laughing with her about silly things as they sipped their beers.

In fact, Rick was so distracted with the gorgeous pre-law major before him that he failed to take note of a scuffle breaking out near the chip bowl in the kitchen. By the time the fight made its way towards them, Rick was caught in a chain reaction of bumping bodies and spilling drinks. Some liquid caught the top edge of his novel and he yelped in irritation.

"Oh shit," Kate said, reaching for a nearby roll of paper towels. She grabbed a hunk and helped him wipe off the top of the book. Thankfully, it did not appear to be too damaged.

"Sorry, I should really put this back," the writer said, clutching the book tighter to his chest and covering it protectively with both arms.

"Right, sure—don't want that to get ruined." Kate nodded in understanding.

Rick took a step backwards then looked at her tentatively. "I'll come right back here if you want to-"

"No, I'll come with you," she said, stepping towards him without even the slightest hesitation.

Rick didn't move towards the exit. Instead he looked at her, bemused. "But, we just met."

She flicked him a mildly irritated expression. "So I'm cautious—don't make fun of me."

He laughed and held up one hand, palm out. "I would never."

As it would have been difficult to converse on their trip through the crowded hall and up the equally crowded stairs, the duo trekked to the fourth floor in silence, only speaking again once Rick unlocked the door to his apartment and let them both inside.

"Do you have a roommate?" Kate asked, observing the space quite typical of college males: sparse furniture including a well-used futon and, if she was not mistaken, a beanbag chair; posters of bikini-clad models on the walls; and a kitchen of questionably cleanliness.

"Two, actually."

"Writers?"

He shook his head. "No, one is pre-med and the other is in pharmacology, so they're basically never here."

A jealous smile instantly crossed Kate's face. "That sounds amazing."

He grinned. "Right? You have a roommate I assume."

"Three."

"Fun."

She shrugged. "It's not that bad. I mean, it could be worse. I also spent a lot of time at the library…and, if things get too awful I can always go to my parents' to study."

Rick placed his novel down on the double-stacked cardboard boxes masquerading as and end table beside the futon. Folding his arms, he nodded to her. "You're a city girl?"

"Born and raised."

He smiled. "Me too. What do your parents do?"

Kate strolled into the main seating area and sat down on the edge of the futon. "They're lawyers."

Rick nodded and sat on the end opposite her. Ah, there it was; her story. "Going into the family business?"

"Oh god no," Kate assured him. "My father's a professor and my mother is—ah, not working right now, but she had been a defense attorney—an advocate for the wrongly convicted."

Skimming his fingertips over his chin, he asked, "So what are your plans? Going to shock them both by becoming a big, fancy corporate lawyer?"

She smiled softly, folded her hands and tucked them between her knees. "No, actually I…I plan on working for the DA."

"Fascinating," Rick said, grazing his eyes over her face until she blushed and turned away. "Tell me more."

Looking back tentatively, she asked. "About what?"

"You. Why'd you choose NYU?"

She shook her head. "I go to Columbia; I came here with a friend of mine. I guess you could say she dragged me here. She goes to NYU and is constantly trying to get me to come to a party with her since, in her mind, I study too much."

Studying too much; all work and no play. He could see both things being true about her. He could also see her kicking ass and taking names as a fine district attorney and briefly wondered how much wearing a power suit would add to her attractiveness. Especially if perhaps she put on a pair of glasses… Clearing his throat, he asked, "So why Columbia? Didn't want to leave the greatest city in the world?"

"I…" She began tentatively, trying to choose the words for her explanation very carefully. "I actually started out at Stanford, but… but because of some family things I decided I needed to be closer to home."

Hearing her refer to a family issue caused Rick to lean away from her ever so slightly. From the guarded way she spoke he guessed the issue to be quite personal and thus did not want to pry. Instead, he merely said, "I understand."

Kate smiled, grateful that he did not press her to expand on her reasoning. "What about you? Why NYU?"

"Ah." He dropped one arm over the top of the futon and reclined back against the cushions. "Not a lot of options, I'm afraid. In school I wasn't…as academically focused as I should have been, shall we say?"

Kate fought the urge to laugh and her lips formed a smirk. "And what did your parents think of that?"

"Oh, um, it's just my mother. I've actually never met my father," he explained.

Kate's eyes widened and she leaned back from him. "Oh I'm so sorry. I-"

"It's fine, Kate," he said, blinking slowly at her. "You couldn't have known."

Relaxing her shoulders again, she asked, "What did your mother think?"

"Well, I'm actually one of the first in the family to go to college so she was just thrilled I got in anywhere."

"Nice," Kate chuckled.

They sat in silence for the better part of a minute before Rick glanced over at her nervously. Technically, they had done what he originally discussed: return his book to a safe environment. Did that mean their fieldtrip to his apartment was over? "Did, um, did you want to go back downstairs or-"

She gave him a smile that had ever nerve ending in his body tingling. "I'm fine right here, Rick. Do you want to-"

"No, no, he said quickly. But, honestly, I don't know what kind of beer I have. It might be the cheap horrible kind," he confessed with a grimace.

"Do you have water?"

"Of course." He jumped from the futon and jogged into the nearby kitchen, returning with two cold bottles of water. He tossed one to her before sitting back down. "And might I add, I'm glad to have proven to you I wasn't trying to trick you into my bedroom."

She gave him a perturbed expression over the water bottle she drank out of. "You want to know the truth?"

"That would be nice, yes."

As his smile was making her heart do that irritating flutter thing again, Kate trained her gaze on the water bottle she held. "I, um, I'm working on this case for my law class. It's about on-campus rape so I guess I'm just a little…hyper-sensitive to strange guys right now. Sorry if I came across as bitchy."

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. "You weren't bitchy and that's perfectly understandable. It's unfortunate that things like that happen, but I'm glad there's going to be someone like you fighting to give the victims justice."

She smiled at him, grateful. "Well, I'm not there just yet."

He blinked at her slowly. "Don't worry, Kate; you will be."


	4. Chapter 3

_A/N: Bonus Update for Castle Fanfic Monday!_

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 _November 1999 – cont'd_

They'd been talking for three hours.

Their topic of conversation bounced around so much, Kate wondered how she was able to keep up but it was…easy. Really, really easy. Though they had barely met four hours earlier, Kate felt as thought she'd known Rick for years. Talking to him felt just like talking to Maddie…except, without the melodramatic eye rolling and the conversation always circling back to being about her. Rick listened just as much as he spoke and when he listened, Kate could tell he really listened; he wasn't just being polite.

When she returned from a bathroom break, Kate found Rick had placed a new bottle of water in front of her seat and discarded the empty one. Sitting back down, she smiled and thanked him quietly.

He acknowledged her gratitude with a nod before asking, "So you've been at Columbia for not quite a whole semester now—which do you like better? Stanford or Columbia? Or is it too soon to judge?"

"Ohh tough question," she commented, readjusting her position so she sat with one leg tucked underneath her. She skimmed her teeth over her bottom lip as she contemplated a response. "New York is my home; it will always be my home. I really can't see myself living anywhere else, at least not long-term, but I liked the challenge of Stanford. Here, I have a lot of safety nets—my parents, my friends from high school who stayed in the city. I liked being forced to be independent and I think I would have enjoyed four years out there. It played into my rebel phase, I guess," she confessed with a secret smile.

Rick choked on the water he was sipping. "You? A rebel? No way!"

She bobbed her head. "Well believe it, because I was."

He narrowed his eyes, studying her. "Nope, can't see it. The future DA? You've always played by the rules."

"I wasn't knocking over convenience stores," she clarified with a laugh. "I was just…dating grungy rockers and staying out past my curfew."

He pressed his lips together, bemused. "That, my dear, is barely on the cusp of a rebel phase. In fact, I think that might just be called 'being a teenager.'"

"I had a motorcycle," she said, challenging his dismissal of her being a true rebel. He shrugged, indicating that didn't sway his decision. "I had a navel ring and got a tattoo."

"A tattoo? As in singular—just one?" he asked. She nodded. "Mm yeah, no. Sorry, Kate you're not a true rebel until you steal the Harley, ride it 'til dawn and come home with a giant rose tattooed on your bicep."

She laughed. "Well, thank god I was smart enough not to get that—it would have been harder to cover up!"

"Where's your tattoo?" he asked. She pointed to her left hip, just below her belt. "And it's of?"

Snagging her bottom lip with her teeth she shook her head. "Sorry, that'll stay a secret for now."

He quirked an eyebrow in her direction. "For now implies I might get to see it one day." She merely shrugged and turned her attention to her water bottle. Rick made a mental note to remember her tattoo and request to see it at the next presented opportunity. "Okay, so you were a quasi-rebel; I get that. I was more class clown then rebel, though. Until I grew up and realized if I actually wanted to be able to, you know, buy food and pay for a roof over my head I'd better get serious about something."

She nodded wisely. "That's generally how that works, yes."

"Is that what happened to you? You realized you had do that that terrible thing and grow up?"

A breathily laugh escaped her lips as she traced figure-eight patterns across the thighs of her jeans. "In a way. I guess…I guess as boring as it sounds I just grew out of it—realized I was dating grungy rockers just for the thrill of it, not because I actually liked any of them. And, you know. You grow up." She added with a shrug.

"A change of location can do that to someone," he said pointedly. Okay, so he may have been leading her a bit, but he couldn't help it; he was curious. He could see in her eyes there was more to the story; he felt it in his writer's bones, too. Something had happened—not to her; she wasn't that wounded, but to someone close. A family member, most likely.

She was silent for almost a full minute, scraping with her nail at a stain on the futon, until she began quietly, "The wanted me to stay—my parents. They encouraged me to stick it out at Stanford, but being an entire country away from them… If it had been in Connecticut or even Virginia—somewhere on the East Coast—I probably would have, but being that far away. If something had happened and—Sorry." She stopped herself, looking up at him.

"You don't have to tell me about anything you don't want to, Kate."

Kate felt a tightness forming in her chest as she gazed over at him. His words, so genuine; his expression, so calm. She found him…baffling. How was it possible this person she just met had her feeling so comfortable? So at ease? Had her feeling like she wanted to tell him about one of the darkest things that happened to her, when she had told the story to so few before him? Maddie knew, of course, and two other close friends, but everyone at Stanford? Her professors, her acquaintances, even her roommate—she merely told them her mother had fallen ill, giving them no more details.

"Last January, just a few days before I was going to fly back out to Stanford for the spring semester, my mother was attacked; she was stabbed."

"Oh god," Rick breathed out. Truthfully, he'd been half expecting to say that a family member—perhaps even a parent—had been diagnosed with cancer or another terrible illness. He had not been expecting something so violent.

Kate nodded. "She was stabbed here," she said, gesturing towards the left side of her flank. "Her kidney and her intestines. She would have bled to death had someone not come along and found her. She was in a coma for a while and—sorry. Sorry," she apologized, shaking her head and turning away from him. He was a twenty-year-old guy—a nice, seemingly very kind one, but still just barely out of his teens; he didn't need to be burdened with her family drama. "I shouldn't be telling you this."

"Kate."

She almost gasped in surprise when his hand landed atop one of hers. She looked down at it—his large masculine fingers curling over her slender ones. Aside from when she was knocked into him on the stairwell, it was the first time they'd touched since meeting. Swallowing hard, she tore her gaze from their touching flesh and up into his azure eyes. He smiled gently at her.

"I'm happy to listen to whatever you want to tell me."

She lifted her thumb and trapped two of his fingers against the web of her hand, giving them a gentle squeeze. "Thanks. It's just…I know it's been nearly a year, but sometimes it's hard to believe all of this really happened."

A sadder smile crossed his face before his brow wrinkled. "Is she…is she ok? I mean, did she come out of the coma?"

Kate nodded. "She was only in a coma for five days. And she…she's okay." She paused on that word and took a deep breath. Though it wasn't the most descriptive or eloquent, it seemed to be the only one that fit. "I think that's the best we can say. She was in and out of the hospital for months, ultimately having to have the injured kidney removed, but she still has some problems because of the damage done, especially with her digestion. She says she's fine, but I know that's just because she doesn't want to burden us—my father and I."

"You're an only child?" Rick guessed.

She nodded. "I know there's not much I can do to help at this point, but I just feel like I have to be here, you know? If something happened suddenly and I was so far away… I mean, what if I had been in California when she was stabbed? I would have gone out of my mind trying to get back here and if she di-" The word caught in her throat before it could come out, so she shook her head and bit down on her tongue, willing the tears to stop. "I couldn't live with it."

"I get it—completely. I cannot even imagine how difficult this was for you and your family. I…" He hesitated before posing his next question. "I'm sorry—I don't mean to pry and you can totally tell me it's none of my business but forgive my writer's curiosity: was she mugged?"

Kate shook her head. "No, actually she still had her wallet and jewelry."

Rick's brow furrowed as he processed these new details. "So then…"

"We don't know," she said, answering his implied question. "She doesn't remember the incident at all—doesn't even remember why she was on the street she was on. She can't identify who attacked her."

Ah, there it was. Rick sat back against the couch cushions as the story formulated in his brain. "So they never found the person responsible. And…and you want to become a DA so you can prosecute people who do heinous things." When he looked over at her, she wore an expression that implied he'd just caught her with her hand in a cookie jar.

"Silly right?"

"No! No not at all, Kate. Incredible." He assured her. She smiled gently at him and he felt it stronger than ever: the invisible magnet force pulling him towards her. His hand was still resting atop hers; they were already sitting so close. It took almost no effort at all for him to lean his torso towards hers. He felt her leaning in too, the feeling of her breath against his cheek and-

A scream from the hallway sent a shockwave through them both. Rick's heartrate spiked and he stood off the couch, staring at the closed apartment door. Not a second later, the yelping was followed by chortles of laughter and incessant giggling. Grumbling at whoever ruined his moment, Rick stat back down and turned to Kate. "Guess the party made it to this floor."

"Yeah," she sighed, sliding just a few inches towards the far end of the couch. Now that the party had interrupted their moment, she decided it was probably not best to kiss him for the first time while she was in such an emotionally vulnerable state. "Let's, ah, let's talk about something else. Something less, dramatic perhaps. What does your mother do?"

Rick laughed so loudly that Kate practically jumped. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quickly, noting the perplexed and almost offended look on her face. "It's just…if you want to talk about something less dramatic, it can't be my mother. She's an actress and literally the most dramatic person I've ever met."

Realizing the amusement factor, Kate laughed as well. "She's an actress? Really? Like…on TV?"

"No, no—Broadway; she's a theater actress."

"You're kidding?"

Rick shook his head. "Not in the least. She was even nominated for a Tony a few years back."

"You're kidding!" Kate said, her voice turning an octave higher.

"Nope."

"Well that's…fascinating." She smiled at him. "Tell me more."

* * *

"Rick? You awake?" Kate asked, her tone sluggish. They were each draped across opposite ends of the futon, dozing in and out. She'd managed to rouse herself enough to look at her watch and realized it was just after five in the morning. "I'm going to go."

"Wha-? No. 'm awake; 'm awake," he mumbled out, struggling to sit up.

"It's almost morning—I really need to go." Kate stood and gazed around the immediate area. Spotting a spiral notebook on the coffee table, she scooped it up and flipped it open. The first few pages had unrecognizable equations, which made sense given his roommate's scientific studies. She flipped to the back, found a blank page and tore it out. Then, she picked up one of the stray pens lying on the table and scribbled down her phone number.

"I'm going to leave my number here."

"No," he said, groping out his hand to grab onto her, but she was too far from him, so his arm merely fell limp against the couch. "Lay back down for a bit…we'll go to breakfast."

"Sorry, I really have to go. Call me okay?" She folded the paper with her number in half and set it down on the coffee table beside the pen and equation-filled notebook.

"Yeah, I'll definitely call. Definitely."

Smiling down at the sleeping writer, Kate dusted her hand through his hair and then headed out the door, the smile never leaving her face.


	5. Chapter 4

_A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed your bonus chapter this week. Again, I'll ask you to please note the date - we are back in this story's "present day"_

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

 _April 2009_

"Wrist band? Great! Here's your copy of _Storm's Last Stand_. Next!"

Kate accepted her new book with a polite thank you and stepped forward in line. Stupid—this was stupid, right? Was it stupid? She was thirty years old for Christ sakes! Didn't that make her too old to stand in line to get an autograph from a celebrity? It made her feel so…silly. Looking around, however, the line's demographics dictated otherwise. In fact, aside from the couple standing a few fans up (a woman around her age grasping the hand of a five-year-old presumably her daughter) Kate thought herself to be one of the youngest in the crowd. If she had to ballpark it, the average age of the women surrounding her was probably well into the low fifties if not higher.

Then why did she feel so ridiculous? Why had she felt so ridiculous the night before, nervous jitters making it difficult to stand still in the line to pre-purchase her book and pay an extra forty dollars for the accompanying gold wristband? Why had she made excuses to her coworkers as to why she had to leave at two p.m. on a Friday—no later!—so she could make it to Barnes & Noble to stand in the pre-line to ensure she was one of the first five hundred buying wristbands starting at seven p.m.? Why had she gone to such great lengths to see—get a signature from!—a man who…well, she didn't want to think about it. She couldn't think about it.

So she'd given him her number and he hadn't called her back. That only happened to her dozens of times during her prior thirty years. Well, not dozens. Several times…a few times? She couldn't remember. It certainly had happened, and she wasn't angry with those men. Sure, in the moment they'd had a great time, but in the following days, after some reflection, something just wasn't right. She couldn't be angry with that—she wasn't. The only problem was: with all those other guys, she'd never voluntarily gone to see them again. But it was going to be fine. Totally fine.

Needing something to distract herself from the slow-moving line (and her internal debates), Kate examined the newest title in her hands. She skimmed her fingers across the crisp book jacket—red and orange sunset in the background, silhouette of the titular character in the foreground. She fought the urge to bring her nose to the spine and inhale that wonderful, oh-so-perfect new book smell; she'd save that for when she had left the store and no one else was watching. Flipping it over, she skimmed the synopsis. She had, of course, read all about it on (as a website subscriber, she received exclusive email updates), but there was something more satisfying about reading the summary when she held the book in her hand and planned on diving in at the earliest opportunity.

Stepping forward in line, Kate rounded a display of puzzles and games for children and caught her first glimpse of the mystery writer in person. That time, her stomach felt as though it might leap right out of her throat and flop onto the carpet at her feet. Richard Castle. Dear god, she really was doing this, wasn't she?

"Oh goodness—there he is! There he is!" The woman behind her chortled, clapping her hands together.

Kate turned and gave her a small smile. "Yeah, there he is."

"And so handsome!"

Kate bobbed her head and turned back to the writer, who was smiling and shaking the hand of a blushing woman she guessed to be easily double his age, if not more. The writer was handsome, though slightly different than how she remembered him—if her ten year old memory of one six hour night could be trusted. The contours of his face had softened with age giving him a more rugged appearance which, quite honestly, she preferred when compared to the boyish barely-out-of-his-teens one she remembered. His hair was no longer short and a little bit spiky, but longer and parted in the middle—that she definitely preferred. But his hands—those were the same; those she remembered well.

While she had momentarily distracted herself from her nerves, the closer Kate drew to the front of the line, they returned with a vengeance. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, drummed her fingertips against the cover of her book, even managed to dig a mint from the depths of her purse to suck on, but to no avail; she still felt as though she might throw up before she was ever able to speak to him.

Finally, the woman in front of her stepped up and she was able to hear his well-perfected greeting routine.

"Hi, I'm Rick. And you are?" He extended his hand and shook the woman's before repeating, "Cindy. Nice to meet you, Cindy." He took her book, flipped open the front cover, scrawled his name across the title page, and then handed it to her. "There you go, Cindy; have a great day. Thanks for coming."

The Barnes & Noble employee guarding the entrance to the line gave Kate a nod and she stepped forward with one more deep breath, praying her cheeks weren't betraying her by showing a crimson color. As it was, she already feared a few drops of perspiration had bubbled across her brow. Switching her book to her left hand, she stepped up in front of the writer and extended her right hand to his.

"Hi, I'm Rick. And—oh my god," the writer stopped, his hand closed tightly around hers. His eyes widened as he proclaimed, "It's you!"

Unable to stop herself, Kate let out a blip of laughter. Evidently she had her answer to the "Will he remember me?" question. "Hi," she said dumbly, still distracted by the sweat on her brow and how hot the skin of his hand felt against hers. "I, ah, I wasn't sure if you'd remember-"

"I do! Of course…I mean, my god it's been…"

"A while, yeah," she said, turning her eyes down towards the table. Most days, she did not like to acknowledge the fact that she was over a decade out of high school and would soon face a similar milestone for college, too. Well, for undergrad, at least. When her eyes flicked back towards his, she found him gazing at her with no small amount of amazement. Okay, now she was definitely sweating, which was most unfortunate because her hand was still trapped against his.

Kate quickly discovered she had a new problem. He was…staring at her. He clearly remembered her—which was amazing in of itself—but perhaps he didn't remember her name. Maybe that's why he was staring. In order to remedy the momentary awkwardness she said, "I'm K-"

"Kate," he finished simply. Then, he grinned at her. "I know; I remember."

Before he could speak another word, the blonde woman to his right cleared her throat obnoxiously. As though he'd been prodded with a jolt of electricity, the writer snapped back to reality. "Right, sorry, I…" His voice drifted off as he finally released her hand and reached instead for her book, scrawling his name quickly across the title page and pushing it back across the table to her.

Momentarily stunned, Kate's fingertips skimmed across the edge of her book. Was that…it? One moment he was gazing at her as though she was a long-lost talisman finally found but with one scolding from his manager (publisher? agent?) he was moving her down the line. That was…disappointing. But—oh, wait. What was he—

"Here," he said, quickly pulling out his cell phone and tapping the unlock code into it. "I'm sorry, I can't talk now, but I want to. Put your number in my phone and I'll call you. Please?"

Stunned, Kate had no idea how she was able to reach out and take the iPhone from his grasp, but she did. Cradling her book under the crook of her left arm, she stepped out of line and tucked herself between the table at which the writer and his companion sat and a large potted plant. Stumbling for a moment with the unfamiliar device, Kate managed to find the contacts list, type in the information and hit save.

Looking up, she spotted the blonde woman now facing her, her hand out, palm facing up, ready to accept the writer's phone. Kate's eyes grazed over her for a moment. She was beautiful. With her hair falling in soft curls above her shoulders and her blue eyes she could have appeared sweet; yet, the smile across her face indicated an underlying layer of poison and most assuredly annoyance. "It's under Kate Beckett," she said, placing the phone in the woman's palm. She twitched one side of her lips in acknowledgement before setting the phone down beside the writer. "Um, thanks," Kate said to no one in particular before filing towards the exit along with the latest giggling Castle fan.

Shaking her head and still trying to figure out what happened, Kate exited the book store and nearly ran smack into the older woman who had been standing behind her in line. "Oh there you are! He did remember you! Isn't that wonderful!"

"Yeah," Kate smiled. "It's…something."

Something—that was the best she could think of to describe it. He remembered her. And she gave him her number—technically, for the second time. He remembered her and seemed genuinely stunned and—dare she think it—delighted to see her. Yet, part of her could not help but wonder: _Will he call me this time? Or will I never hear from him again?_


	6. Chapter 5

_A/N: so sorry for the delayed update guys. I thought I remembered to update before my busy weekend started but evidently i forgot. Here is your belated weekend chapter!_

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Ninety minutes later Kate Beckett sat on the couch in her apartment, legs folded beneath her, loose-knit blanket draped over her lap. Beside her, she had a cup of warm tea. With a pillow resting on her thighs and the book atop it, she should have been having a wonderful afternoon. Her belly was full and she had just settled in with the latest title from her favorite writer. Yet, she could not manage to get past the first page of the first chapter. Hell, she had barely read the first paragraph. (Well, technically she had—three times—though none of it computed in her brain.) Each time she attempted to begin Derrick Storm's latest tale, her eyes were drawn back to her cell phone resting on the coffee table in front of her.

Stupid. She was being stupid.

The writer had gone out of his way to ask for her number. He'd actually had _her_ plug the number into _his_ phone, a move which seemed highly unlikely if he was simply going to blow her off and not call again. If that was the case, he would have merely said, "It's so nice to see you again," signed her book and moved her along politely. Thus, for the sake of argument, she decided he did have intentions to call her. However, just because he had intentions to call her did not mean he was going to call her _right that second._

Richard Castle was, after all, a busy man. His latest book was released that day. He probably had interviews or press events to do. For all she knew, he had another book signing at a different store that afternoon! Of course his first task after ending his signing was not going to be to call her. _Maybe_ she would hear from him by the end of the day—maybe. Or, perhaps, the following day, though that was a Sunday, so possibly not. Monday—she would probably hear from him on Monday, once they were back in the flow of the regular work week (did writers have a regular work week?).

Nevertheless, it was silly for her to look up at her phone every few seconds. The device had the sound on full volume (she'd checked six times) so if he were to call her she would hear it from anywhere in her apartment. And, really, even if he did call her and she was unable to answer for whatever reason, he could leave a message and she could call him back—that was no big deal. In fact—yes, yes of course. Come to think of it, she actually _preferred_ if he left her a message. Then, she could hear what his message said and respond accordingly on her own time. Perfect.

Taking in a deep, satisfied breath, Kate resigned to her decision. She picked up her phone, intending to switch it to silent so she would not be distracted from her novel. No sooner had she touched the screen on the Blackberry when the device chimed loudly. The noise startled her so much that the item popped out of her grasp and she fumbled with it, knocking it around with her hands in a poor attempt to catch it until it ultimately plopped down on the couch beside her. Scooping it up, she looked at the screen and felt her heart jump right up into her throat. The message on the screen from an unknown number read: _Hi, it's Rick Castle_.

With trembling fingers she tapped back: _Hi…is your book signing over?_

His reply was instant. _It is. What are you doing right now?_

 _Reading Storm's Last Stand_. Okay, that was not technically a lie since she intended to be reading the book. She just kept getting…distracted.

 _Well far be it from me to interrupt you (I hear that novel is brilliant!) but would you like to grab some coffee?_

A grin spread across her face, Kate tapped back, _Sure. Have a place in mind?_

 _Where do you live?_

 _The Village_

When he didn't respond in less than thirty seconds, Kate began chewing on her bottom lip, staring intently at her screen. Her fingertips tapped impatiently along the bottom of the device until he returned with the address of a café within a few blocks of her residence. _2 pm ok?_ He asked.

 _See you there_ , she responded immediately.

Then, smiling, she set the phone aside. Richard Castle—she was having coffee with Richard Castle! Was this—wait, no of course it wasn't. Of course this wasn't a date. She hadn't seen him in a decade and—yes, come to think of it she thought she might have heard him mention a wife during one of his interviews. Obviously. Of course he was married so their coffee outing was most certainly not a date. Definitely not a date. It was just two old friends catching up over some caffeine. Still, she decided she'd better check her makeup before leaving the apartment—just in case.

* * *

An hour later, Kate sat at a two-seater table near the door in the café the novelist had chosen. His book was open in front of her, but she'd only managed to get through the first chapter in the time since their text message conversation. Despite this being not a very impressive milestone, she was simply happy just to be off the first page. Now that she was actively waiting for him, her reading progress had slowed once more as her eyes kept darting up towards the door.

One minute before the hour, Kate glanced up to see the café door swing open and the sunglasses-wearing writer step inside. Instinctually, Kate stood, though she failed to push herself back from the table enough before she did so, causing her thighs to slam painfully into the table edge and the wooden surface to rattle against the floor. Cursing under her breath, she fought a losing battle against her blushing cheeks. Damn it, why was she such a mess around him? She was an adult for crying out loud!

Much to her continued mortification, the writer's attention was drawn towards the noise and he smiled at her. Plucking the sunglasses off his face, he tucked them inside the pocket of his navy blazer and stepped over to her. Warm smile on his face, he swooped in and brushed his lips against her cheek. "Kate. Lovely to see you again."

"I—ah, yeah. Y-yeah. You too, Rick." Unconsciously tucking a strand of hair behind her ears, Kate felt her cheeks heat even further and skimmed her hands across her jeans and then into her front pockets, but only for a second until she moved them to the back pockets. Damn it, what was she supposed to do with her hands?! Jesus, she had to get a grip.

"What can I get you? My treat," he said, thumbing towards the café's ordering counter. She requested her usual vanilla latte before sitting back down and attempting to relax. She closed her book and tucked it into the top of her purse, which rested at the edge of the table. The novel was too big to fit fully in the bag so the top peeked out over the edge.

A few minutes later, the writer returned with their drinks. Spotting his book, he nodded towards it. "Enjoying it so far?"

"Of course, but I've only gotten through the first chapter," she admitted sheepishly. Then, picking up the to-go cup she added, "Thanks for this."

He grinned. "My pleasure. Sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to seem rude or anything, but events like that are so crazy and usually run long. Gina tries to nip any extra communication in the bud."

Kate bobbed her head as she swallowed some of her drink. "Don't worry about it, Rick; I totally get it. She's your…manager?"

"Agent," he corrected. "Yep, it's her job to ensure all these events run smoothly—typically by instilling terror in every teenaged Barnes & Noble employee she comes across."

Kate laughed. "She sounds lovely."

Rick shrugged and took a drink of his espresso. "So…ten years, right? Just about, anyway."

"Ten years," she echoed.

He was silent for a moment, studying her as though she were a masterpiece he would later be quizzed on. His intent stare caused Kate to blush once more and fight the urge to look away. Instead, she nervously tapped her fingers against her coffee cup in a futile attempt to distract herself from the fluttering in her heart.

"About that night," Rick began, resting his forearms against the table. "Before anything else is said, I think I need to apologize to you again. A few hours after you left, my roommate woke me up yelling about something and I wasn't thinking clearly. By the time I remembered your phone number, my other roommate had set a cold water bottle down on top of it. The condensation had run down the bottle and completely obliterated the numbers."

Kate leaned back in her seat as breath escaped her lips. So he hadn't purposely ignored her digits, or decided their night of endless discussion meant nothing. Well. That certainly changed things.

"I could only make out the first three digits," the writer continued. "I had no idea what the rest of your number was."

Kate smiled, took a sip of her drink, set the cup down and looked at him. "I just thought you weren't interested."

Rick's eyes widened and his head began moving left and right. "Are you kidding me? That night was amazing. I tried to find you, but with only your first name…" He let his voice drift off. "It was like you'd been a dream."

She let out a small chuckle. Well, that certainly was pushing it, though the night had been memorable for her as well.

"So tell me all about the past decade of your life—what's been going on? Did you go to law school? Oh! How's your mother doing?"

Kate leaned back, almost startled by his final question. How in the world had he remembered that? She remembered their night together and much of what they talked about, but it certainly had become fuzzy over the years and she didn't remember ever moment of those six hours. Yet, apparently, the story of her mother had stuck with him.

"She's, ah, she's doing pretty good. Still has good days and bad days, but fortunately the good outweigh the bad. She's been volunteering at a legal aid office a few days a week for a while now and she really enjoys that."

He nodded, internally thankful that his question had not resulted in a negative answer. "And you?"

"I've been at the DA's office since I graduated law school," she confessed.

"Kate, that's fantastic; what a wonderful accomplishment."

At the genuine tone in his voice, she lowered her gaze. "Thanks, but I don't think it quite holds a candle to being Richard Castle, author extraordinaire."

"Oh," he sighed, leaning back in his seat. "I don't know if I'd go that far."

Her gaze flicked in his direction. "You've had ten best sellers in as many years—I think we can go that far."

He shrugged one shoulder. "I've been lucky—in my professional career, at least." At her questioning gaze, he added more tentatively, "I'm, ah, semi-recently divorced."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Semi-recently?"

"It's been just over a year."

"I'm sorry to hear that." So she had remembered that correctly; he had been married, but now he was not. That was interesting.

With another sip of espresso, Rick said, "Thanks, but it wasn't all that bad. I have a daughter—Alexis. She's four-and-a-half going on thirty and without a doubt the best thing in my life."

Though she had not been expecting this, Kate smiled at the writer's description. Having only known briefly as a twenty-one-year-old, she had never pictured him as a parent. Though, to be fair, she never pictured any of her college friends and acquaintances as parents. Hell, she still found it hard to believe that some of her former classmates had multiple children. Kate did not conceptualize children in her own life, though that was probably in large part to her single status; she had nothing against children as a general rule. "Do you have a picture?"

Bobbing his head, Castle pulled his phone from his blazer pocket and pressed a few buttons until he displayed a picture of a fire-red haired girl with a toothy grin and blue eyes that matched her father's. "She's adorable," Kate commented. "How often do you see her?"

"Daily; I have full custody," he explained simply.

Kate's eyes widened not having expected that. "Wow, that's impressive. You must be a great father."

"Well, I try, though some days I'm not sure." He laughed. "So what about you? Married? Children?"

"Oh, gosh no," she admitted with a chuckle, pushing her now mostly empty cup to the side. "I'm afraid I'm rather boring—just a lot of working cases, going to court."

He smiled at her. "Well, you know what they say about all work and no play…"

"I do fun things," she assured him.

"Such as…?"

"Going to mystery writer's book signings," she said with a cheeky grin.

"So I'm not the only one?! I'm crushed!" He proclaimed, clutching at his heart with both hands.

She laughed. "I'm kidding—you are seriously the only one."

The grin returning to his face he said, "Excellent. Listen, ah, I don't want to sound too presumptuous but I was thinking maybe we could exchange email addresses."

Her brow furrowing slightly, she said, "I don't think that's presumptuous, Rick."

"Well, no, ah, not presumptuous per say but, ah," he let out a breathy chuckle and dusted his fingertips over his brow, obviously somewhat flustered over his own stammering. "What I'm trying to say is things are a little complicated for me right now. I'm about to go on this book tour—I leave tomorrow, actually—but I'd like to keep in touch. I mean, if you're interested."

Kate smiled at him and reviewed the bullet points of their conversation in her mind: they were both single, they both admitted to fond memories of their decade-earlier night together, and they had an enjoyable conversation over coffee. So, maybe their emails would go nowhere. Maybe they'd find they had little in common and it wouldn't go any further than a few messages back and forth. Or…well, it was too early to think about that now, but there was certainly potential, and considering her trepidations of a few hours earlier, that was most unexpected.

"Absolutely," she said finally. "I'd love to exchange emails with you."


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Alexis? Mother?" Rick called out to his family the moment he let himself into his apartment, a notable spring in his step. "Where are you—oh. Hello Mother." He swooped down and kissed the red-head on the cheek when he spotted her coming out of the kitchen. "Did you and Alexis have a fun afternoon?"

Martha blinked at him. "Who are you and what have you done with my son?"

Rick laughed as he went to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. "What does that mean?"

"It means: when have you ever been full of this much spunk when you come home from a book signing that went extra-long?" Martha folded her arms over her chest and raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. Generally, when he came home from that much rapid-fire interaction, he required a shower and at least half an hour of silence before rejoining the human race. Sometimes he would read quietly with Alexis, but he had never been this jovial. Nor had he ever—was he skipping!?

"Ah, that's because I wasn't at the signing this whole time. Mother—I found her."

"You found _her_? To whom are you referring, darling?"

"Kate—the one that got away." Rick slid into one of the counter stools, his elbow resting casually on the countertop.

Martha approached him slowly. "The one that got away? Richard, who is this girl? I don't recall you ever mentioning a 'Kate' to me before."

"First semester, junior year. There was a party in my building and I ran into this girl on the stairwell. We…we got to talking. We talked all night, actually. I remember going to sleep wondering if I found the woman I was going to marry," he told her with a rather ironic smile.

"My god," Martha exhaled as she sat down in a stool beside him. In her son's thirty-one years of life, she had become well acquainted with his over-dramatic tendencies; the ones she had proudly passed on to him. The more he embraced being a writer, the more his flair blossomed. Yet, somehow this was different. He had a look—a look Martha had come to known well in her fifty-odd years on the planet. That look, however, was not one she saw on him too often. In fact, she'd go as far as to say she'd never seen it before, which made their conversation even more astounding. "What happened?"

He gave her a sad smile. "She left me her number, but the paper got wet—I couldn't read it. All I had was her first name and knew she was pre-law at Columbia. If it was today, I probably could have found her on the internet, but back in ninety-nine? All I could do was ask around. I looked for her for months but…" His voice drifted off with a shrug.

His mother's brow furrowed. "But…how did you find her now?"

"She found me," he said with no small amount of amazement. "Showed up at my book signing; we went for coffee after. She's a lawyer now with the DA's."

"That's incredible."

His smile grew wider—if that was even possible. "I know. We exchanged phone numbers and emails; we're going to keep in touch."

Martha nodded then slowly her expression faded into one of confusion. "But…what about Gina? I thought you two were-"

"Ah, yeah." Rick slid from his seat and walked around to the other side of the kitchen counter. "Her."

"Richard," Martha began in the same tone she'd used to scold him since he was a little boy. "I did not raise a son to string two women along at the same time."

He stopped walking and turned to her. "Wha—no. No. I was never going to do that."

"But yet you're dating Gina."

"Dating is a strong term," he explained. "We're…not dating. Possibly pre-dating, assuming I wanted to continue with that, which I don't even know if-" Rick was interrupted by the ringing of the apartment doorbell. As he went to answer it, he asked his mother, "Where's Alexis, by the way?"

"She's upstairs; she said she wanted some time for a reflective conversation with her stuffed animals." Martha explained with a casual hand wave.

Rick's brow wrinkled, then he shrugged and whipped open the door. Immediately, his expression fell. "Gina…" Distantly he heard his mother make a comment about burning ears, but he ignored it.

"Rick," she said simply, stepping into the apartment and pulling the sunglasses off her face.

He closed the door behind her. "I thought we were meeting tomorrow morning."

She stopped walking and spun around. "Yes, but I wanted to hear all about that old friend you just met for coffee."

Rick flashed her a patronizing smile. From her tone, he could tell it wasn't going to be a friendly chat, but more like a military interrogation. Clearing his throat and hoping for a civilized talk (though also realizing his chances for that were probably slim), he led the way to the office. "It was nice. We chatted for a bit—reminisced. That was all."

Gina stopped in the doorway, buying absolutely none of his vague response. "And…how long did you date her?"

"We never dated; it was just one night." The words left his lips before he realized how salacious they made his evening with Kate sound. He attempted to mitigate the damages, but it was too late. "I mean, we-"

"All this over a one night stand?" Gina rolled her eyes as she said, "Jesus, Rick, how good could the sex possibly have been?"

Perturbed, though mostly at himself for opening the can of worms, Rick said quickly, "No, we didn't have sex. We…we never even kissed," he added a bit quieter. Gina didn't need to know that detail; she didn't deserve it. No one who wasn't there could understand how special that night had been.

As predicted, Gina spoke her next sentence with a certain attitude. "Yet, you insisted on meeting her for coffee."

"There's no need for a tone, Gina," Rick said, exhausted.

"What tone?"

His eyes flicked to hers. "You know what tone. Don't get jealous on me now."

Gina snorted with laughter. "I'm not jealous, simply curious. You met a girl for one night and, what? Talked for a little bit? Thar hardly seems like much of anything, but when you saw her…" Gina's voice trailed off at the memory of her companion's spotting-the-finest-jewel-on-earth expression. "She seemed more than just an acquaintance."

"Yet," Rick said, taking a seat at his desk, "as I just explained that's all she was—a friend."

She stepped up to the edge of his desk, challenging him. "She's beautiful."

"She is." He agreed knowing denial would have him in worse trouble.

"What does she do?"

"She works for the DA."

A chortle escaped the blonde's lips. "Oh."

Rick arched an eyebrow. "What was that?"

Gina sat down and reclined into the leather guest chair. "You hate lawyers."

"I hate my lawyers; I hate the lawyers at Black Pawn, but I do not, as a general rule, hate the profession."

Gina's lips pursed. "So you like her."

Now bored of their argument, he sighed and flipped open the lid of his laptop. "I like a lot of people, Gina."

"Will you see her again?"

As the computer booted, he shifted his gaze back to her. "What does it matter? It's really none of your concern."

"It is if I'm your girlfriend."

Ah, there it was. He was waiting for her to bring it up as he certainly wasn't. If he was being honest with himself, he would admit that had he not run into Kate that day, he probably would have agreed to upgrading their status to boyfriend/girlfriend. Did that mean anything long term? He had no idea, but he would have agreed as it seemed the most natural step. However, he had seen Kate that day. Seen her, seen how beautiful she still was, seen her and felt that same fluttering in his chest every time she smiled at him. And that changed things.

"Are you? Because last time I checked, you didn't want to define any of this." Rick gestured between them with his left hand as he spoke.

Gina gave a casual shrug. "Maybe I'm changing my mind."

Of course she was—now that it was convenient for her. Or, perhaps, now that it seemed he might have other prospects. "Maybe I'm not ready."

If she hadn't had such a well-perfected poker face from years in the publishing business, Gina's jaw probably would have dropped. Instead, her upper lip twitched and her expression grew sour; as though she'd sipped on pure lemon juice before adding the sugar and making it lemonade. "Because of this… old friend?"

His response was calm. "This has nothing to do with Kate."

"Then why?"

Taking a deep breath, he looked at her. "I'm not saying no or never. I'm just saying I want to think about it. Saying it's more than just me I need to consider."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I have a four-year-old daughter and I am her primary caregiver."

"Fine." Gina stood and smoothed her pencil skirt, flashing him an expression that clearly meant their situation was anything but. "You think, Rick. You think long and hard about your life, your family, and your career before you throw it away on someone who-"

"Daddy?"

Both adults turned towards the office entrance to see a tiny red-head dressed in a green t-shirt, jeans, and pink striped socks. "What is it Pumpkin?"

"I'm hungry."

Rick smiled at her. "Of course, sweetheart. Miss Gina was just leaving so I'll start dinner now."

Gina flashed Rick a warning look before smiling at the little girl as she walked away. "Goodbye Alexis."

"Bye Miss Gina."

Once the publisher had gone, Rick walked around the side of his desk, grinning. He scooped up the little girl under her armpits and placed a loud smacking kiss on her cheek as she giggled. "Did you have a nice day, sweetie?"

"Yeah, but now I'm hungry."

"Yes, I know. What are we thinking, hmm? Spaghetti? Mac and cheese? Or! How about we just make a whole meal out of broccoli?!"

"Ewww!" The little girl squealed.

Rick gasped dramatically. "What? But broccoli is your favorite!"

"No 'snot Daddy!"

"Hmm," he said, stroking his chin with his free hand. "No I'm pretty sure it's Alexis's favorite. Along with Brussel sprouts!"

"Daddy stop!" she giggled as he began to tickle her waist.

"Okay, okay," he agreed, letting her slide to the floor. "No broccoli or Brussel sprouts—we'll come up with something else."


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Richard Castle had a problem. At that moment, two weeks into his North American book tour he was walking a very delicate tightrope. The more time passed and the more he exchanged messages with Kate, the more he knew she was the one he wanted to be with. Yet, there he was: sharing a hotel room with Gina. Oh. Right. _This_ was why everyone always warned against sleeping with coworkers.

At the moment, he and Gina were nothing really. On hiatus, he had told her a week earlier when they were sharing a bed and she slid her hand into his boxers—a hand that he promptly removed. He just didn't feel right sleeping with her when he hadn't made his mind up about what his future held. Of course, in Gina's mind this was the absolute worst thing he could have done and she'd been punishing him for it ever since. Fortunately, his misery was (almost) at an end.

Rick's book tour, planned largely by Gina was set up into two halves. The first half along the West Coast and southern part of the country was originally meant to be the two of them. A romantic getaway—in theory, anyway. Then, when they reached the midpoint of the tour, in Chicago, his mother and daughter were flying out to join them. They would travel together for ten days along the mid-Atlantic before they would return to New York and Rick and Gina would complete the final, Canadian, leg of the tour in their own.

Chicago was Rick's salvation; that was the point at which Rick was staying with his family and Gina would be taking a separate room. Though at that particular moment, sitting in a Dallas hotel room across the room from Gina's death-glares, Rick wasn't sure why he was delaying the inevitable. In his gut, he knew it, and by his actions, he presumed she knew it as well. Their relationship—if that was even the best term for it—would not last the duration of his book tour.

A small part of him was sad. He and Gina had some nice times together, some good talks. A late-night conversation lead to their intimacy in the first place, but, when it came right down to it, she wasn't Kate. A conversation with Gina, while pleasant, wouldn't say with him days after the fact. Gina's smile didn't make his heart feel as though it overflowed with joy. And, most tellingly, Gina was not the woman he thought about each night before going to sleep.

On the flip side, Rick deeply feared the wrath of officially ending things with Gina too early on their trip. She had made more than one threat against his career and while he knew they were mostly just threats (he was betting on the publishing company being smart enough not to oust one of their bestselling authors just because one representative decided she didn't like him) that didn't mean she would not make his life as miserable as she could and, quite frankly, that thought terrified him a little bit.

Fortunately, he found distraction in a text message from a beautiful brunette attorney. _How's Texas?_

 _Hot,_ he typed back. _I did have a damn good steak, though_

 _Were you wearing a cowboy hat while you ate it?_

 _No, why?_

 _Thought it was a requirement in Texas_

Rick chuckled. He leaned back against the headboard and gazed across the room casually. Gina sat at the small desk in their room, her laptop open, busily taping away at emails. Perfect. Turning back to his phone he asked, _You aren't, by chance, free to talk over the phone right now, are you?_

 _I'd love to, but I have a super early morning tomorrow so I'm headed to bed. Another time?_

 _Absolutely, Kate; have a good night_

* * *

"Okay, I officially have not seen you smile this much in months. I need details—what's his name?"

Kate rolled her eyes at Maddie. They were on one of their pre-planned bi-weekly lunch dates that Saturday at the restaurant Maddie managed. Though they did not always see eye-to-eye, Kate was glad she had kept in touch with her high school friend. She had and always would keep Kate from getting too serious. "Why do you assume it has to do with a guy?"

"Doesn't it?"

Kate fought a smile. "His name is Rick."

Maddie clapped proudly. "I knew it! Where'd you meet him?"

Deciding to have a little fun with her friend, Kate replied, "At that NYU party you dragged me to in 1999."

The blonde blinked. "Huh?"

Kate chuckled. "You remember! I spent the whole night talking to that guy and I was pissed when he never called me—I know I complained about it for weeks."

"No…?" Maddie replied though her tone made it sound like more of a question. Kate launched into a longer, more detailed explanation of her night with Rick and subsequent explanation. Near the end of the tale, Maddie's brain began to make the connections. "Wait, shit! Is this the writer guy? The guy whose books you read?!"

"That's the one."

"No freakin' way! So, wait, are you dating him?" she questioned, still slightly confused.

Kate shook her head. "No, I actually haven't seen him in nearly a month—he's been on a book tour. We've been texting, though and emailing. Silly stuff, mostly. But we have a phone call date tonight."

Maddie eyed her suspiciously. "You mean a phone sex date, right?"

"Maddie!" Kate half laughed, half scolded. "I'm not having phone sex with him."

"Why the hell not? I don't recall you getting any regular sex lately."

Kate ignored this comment, true as it was. "Many reasons. For starters, he's going to have his daughter with him so-"

"Daughter? He has a kid?" Maddie asked, eyebrow raised.

Kate nodded and turned momentarily back to her meal. "Yes, she's four-and-a-half."

Taking a sip of her wine, Maddie considered her friend's situation aloud. "So you might be at the beginning stages of dating a guy with a kid."

Kate lifted her gaze. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"For me? Yes. For you? Well…you're generally a lot better with kids than I am."

Kate smiled softly. "It's not an issue for me."

Maddie's nose scrunched. "But kids mean baggage. Is the mom in the picture or don't you know?"

"I know he's divorced, but I never asked about his ex-wife; I don't think we're at that place yet."

"Well, just make sure you know what you're getting into."

"My god, Maddie, you make it sound like I'm going to marry him—we've never even kissed for crying out loud." Kate added while gesturing flippantly with her fork.

Maddie set down her utensils and pulled her chair in tight to the table. "Kate, you're one of my best friends, so I'm going to be straight with you: you're thirty."

Kate looked up at her friend, her expression blank. "I know that."

"And that means you're old."

"HEY!"

"Okay, well you're not old, but your uterus is."

Narrowing her eyes, Kate grumbled. "Get to the point, Maddie."

"I mean you don't have a year to waste just dating a guy only to realize you can't stand his kid. My point is: get there. Quickly."

Kate leaned back in her seat. "Wow, Mads, for a second there you really sounded like your mother," Kate commented, knowing the elder woman was always pushing her daughter towards marriage and babies—two things Maddie had zero interest in. The blonde's jaw dropped, clearly offended. "You called my uterus old!" Kate retorted.

Maddie went to speak, but then closed her mouth. "Touché." Then, reaching across the table, she grasped her friend's hand. "I just want you to be happy, Becks."

"I am happy, Maddie. Really. And if things don't work out with Rick, they don't work out. For all I know, he's not even interested in taking this to the next level, but I know I'd definitely like to find out."

Maddie nodded before turning back to her salad. "By the way—he's definitely interested."

"What makes you say that?"

She snorted as though the answer was obvious. "Please. A famous writer still talking to you over _email_ after a few weeks? Yeah, he's definitely interested."

* * *

"Okay, tell me your top three favorite…books of mine."

"Rick." Kate laughed, completely able to picture his cheeky grin despite the fact that they were chatting over the phone and had been for the prior two hours, ever since his daughter had gone to bed.

"I'm totally serious," he replied. "I know you're a fan if you came to my book signing."

"No; I'm not feeding your ego."

"But it's starving!"

"Oh really?" she asked with extreme skepticism. "On week four of your book tour, during which you've had near daily sessions with people telling you how much they love you, your ego is _starving_?"

He was silent for a moment. "…yes?"

"Rick!"

"Okay, okay; it's not. Sheesh you're tough; no wonder you're such a good lawyer. I'll pick a different question."

"Thank you," she sighed, tucking the phone between her shoulder and her chin to rearrange the pillows behind her back. With her new position settled, she reclined once again on the couch and held the phone with her left hand.

After a surprising amount of quiet from him, he asked, "Do you ever think about that night?"

From the deepness of his tone, Kate felt the hair on the back of her neck begin to prickle. Swallowing hard she asked, "Which? The night we met?"

"Mmhm."

"Y-yeah. Yeah I do. I…I thought about it every time I saw one of your books. I…" Her breath hitched as she steeled herself for her next confession, one she would not normally make, but with him did not make her feel uncomfortable. Instead it felt…natural. "I would remember your face, your smile. And, when I'd read them, your voice was the one that read to me." Then, second guessing herself, a blush crept onto her cheeks. "Does…does that make me sound creepy?"

"No, not at all," he assured her quickly. "I thought about it to. Thought about you whenever I saw someone on the subway with a Columbia sweatshirt. Thought about how that night made me feel like…like I wasn't alone."

Her heart starting to beat a bit faster, Kate sat up on her sofa. "What do you mean?"

"Just…writing can be rather isolating, solitary. You're in your own head a lot with the characters you've created, the stories you're trying to tell. Sometimes it's hard to get out and sometimes it's even harder to let anyone in. But…talking to you was easy."

"Yeah, I…I felt the same." Though her voice was very quiet, she knew he heard her because of the way he exhaled into the receiver indicating the same thing she felt: relief, happiness, and possibly a little bit of fear. Just as she was about to open her mouth and say something else, she heard muffled noises coming from his end of the phone.

"Ah, crap that's Alexis. Sorry, Kate I have to-"

"No, it's fine; no problem," she assured him quickly, tucking some hair back from her face. "Have a good flight to Philadelphia. I'll talk to you soon?"

"Absolutely. Goodnight Kate."

Shutting her eyes, she pictured his face in her mind: the shining blue eyes and dopey half smile. Happy tingles flowing down her back, she replied, "'night Rick."


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Kate Beckett took a deep breath as she examined her reflection in the full-length mirror hanging on the back of her closet door. She skimmed her hands over her torso, feeling the silky-smoothness of her brand new black dress: solid black from the chest to her mid-thighs sheathed with a cap-sleeved see-through overlay making it appear as though she was wearing something strapless. Just the right amount of sexy, she decided when she pulled it off the rack, and completely perfect for her date with Rick.

Her _date_ with _Rick_.

The mere thought gave her a grin so wide her cheeks hurt as her gut overflowed with butterflies.

Okay, so _technically_ he hadn't called it a date. He just invited her to dinner. At eight p.m. on a Monday night. At one of the city's fanciest restaurants. Oh—and he insisted on picking her up at her place. Thus, when presented with those facts, the lawyer inside her had no choice but to come to the conclusion that their evening would, in fact, classify as a date.

As she stood in her bedroom at ten to the hour, Kate gave her appearance one last once over. Red heels with a matching red clutch. Wrinkle-free black dress. Subtle touches of makeup, hair smoothed and—earrings! She forgot earrings!

Scurrying to her dresser, she picked out the pair of diamond studs her parents had given her for her thirtieth birthday and pinned them in her ears. There; outfit complete.

Walking out into the main area of her apartment, Kate rested her elbows against her kitchen counter and gazed casually down at her phone. She had no messages from the writer which meant he was still coming; this was really happening. Despite their six weeks of emails, texts and phone calls, it was still hard to believe that after a decade of time it seemed they were finally getting their chance for a real date.

Engrossed in her Facebook news feed, Kate jumped slightly when she heard the knock at her apartment door. Tucking the phone into her purse, she hurried into the hall and opened it with a grin—a grin that dropped from her face in surprise when she was presented with flowers. No, not just flowers—a bush; a rose bush.

"Good evening," the writer said, lowering the bouquet so his handsome face could be seen over top. He wore a black blazer with a dark blue shirt beneath—open collar, no tie—and his level of attractiveness sent her heartrate skyrocketing. "You look beautiful. And, ah, here," he said, holding out the flowers.

Using both hands to grasp what must have been two dozen roses, she thanked him and added, "You're looking pretty great yourself. Come in; I want to put these in some water." She walked into her kitchen, plucked an empty vase from the countertop, ran it under the sink tap, and then slipped the roses inside. Given how many of them there were, they barely fit, but she made it work. Then, she turned back to the handsome man before her.

"Shall we?" he asked, extending his arm to her. She nodded, slipped her hand around the crook of his elbow, and allowing him to lead the way out of her apartment.

* * *

"So…I kind of have a confession," Rick began at the restaurant once they'd been served their wine and were waiting for their entrees.

Kate arched an eyebrow. "Okay?"

"Six weeks ago when we met—well, met again," he added, a certain twinkle in his eye, "I, ah, I was actually seeing someone—casually."

"Oh." Kate folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them for a moment. So that was one of the "complications" he mentioned during their coffee outing. Not just his daughter and book tour, but a girlfriend. "Why…are you telling me this?"

"Because I want to be honest with you. I told you things were complicated with me, and they were—on several levels. She and I were not in anything official at that time and I wasn't sure where it was going, but it's over now."

She nodded, not sure how to interpret that. She was glad for the honesty; appreciated it, certainly, but it left her curious. Had Rick's relationship with the other woman been coming to a natural conclusion? Or, had his interactions with her pushed it to an end? If that was the case, she knew she would feel a certain amount of pressure. "Are you sure? Because this doesn't have to—I mean, not that this is anything now—is it? I mean…sorry." Embarrassed, she rested her left hand against the side of her face, partially shielding her eye.

Rick merely smiled at her. "Kate," he began, sliding his left hand across the table to capture her right. "In my mind, this already is something. Honestly—I can't stop thinking about you. I fell for you that night ten years ago and I don't think I've ever recovered."

"Oh…god, wow." His words did not shock her as much as the conviction in his tone—the burning gaze in his eyes. She felt her cheeks go red and her hand began to feel clammy within his.

"I'm sorry," he apologized quickly. "I didn't mean to say too much too quickly, but that's how I feel."

She smiled softly at him. "I just wasn't expecting that."

"Really?" His brow wrinkled. "Even after our emails? Phone calls?"

"No, I did…I mean. I don't know what I mean." She reached for her wine glass and mumbled the last few words into it before taking a sip. She enjoyed their conversations over the prior six weeks; she truly did. She looked forward to every email, smiled with every text message. However, the way he spoke made it sound as though he felt they could pick up where they'd left off that fall night a decade earlier, but she disagreed. They had grown into different people from that night and, as much as they may have wanted to, they could not go back and start again; they needed to start from where they were now.

"No, Kate please. If you're not interested…"

"No." Her answer was immediate, her gaze to him strong. "It's not that; not at all. I… That was a wonderful night, Rick and when I left in the morning I wanted you to call me so we could...do this—except, you know, probably at a diner instead of the hundred-dollar-a-plate restaurant."

"And with no wine since neither of us were twenty-one," he replied wryly.

She let out a breathy laugh. "Right. But it's been ten years since that night. We were kids then, but now we're adults; you have a family and…well, my point is we've both changed since that night."

"I know that, Kate; really. Both of us have certainly changed since college and maybe what would have worked out then won't work now. Or, the opposite could be true. Maybe we wouldn't have made it back then, but the universe has brought us together again when we have another chance." He waggled his eyebrows at her and she grinned. "You don't want to upset the universe now, do you?"

"Of course not."

He beamed at her. "So it's settled. We'll enjoy dinner together and…see where this goes, but I have to warn you: I think it's going good places."

Kate didn't respond except for to sip her wine, but she had a hunch it was going good places as well.

* * *

Their meal was, in a word, lovely. The food was delicious, the wine divine (and, as a result, Kate probably had a half glass more than she should have). Their conversation, while bouncing around to several different topics was light and fun and absolutely everything she hoped it would be.

Like a perfect gentlemen, Rick walked her to her apartment door, his hand gently grazing across the small of her back as they trekked the last few feet between the elevator and her door. When she reached her destination, Kate stopped and turned towards her companion, a gentle smile on her face. His eyes sparkling, he gazed down at her. "When can I see you again?"

"My calendar's pretty free this week, Rick; what did you have in mind?"

"Lunch tomorrow? Or do you have court?"

She shook her head. "No court times, but I think I have a meeting in the late morning. I'll check my schedule when I get to the office and text you a time?" When he bobbed his head in confirmation, she smiled, taking a half step towards him. "I had a really great time tonight."

"Me too. I…" His voice drifted off when his body began to tilt towards hers. This was it; the moment they'd waited a decade for.

They'd almost kissed that night, he was sure of it, and though his regret for not kissing her did not outweigh his regret for not placing her number someplace safe, Rick would have been lying if he hadn't thought about it over the years. With the emotional connection he felt during their conversations, he could not fathom a kiss being a disappointment.

Fortunately, when their lips brushed together for the first time, Rick found his assumption to be true; kissing Kate Beckett was about as far from a disappointment as one could get. Instinctively, his right hand reached around to the small of her back, pulling her body closer to his as his left hand caressed her cheek. When granted his unspoken request to deepen the kiss, he tasted their meal's red wine and the chocolate torte they'd shared for dessert.

When they broke apart a few moments later, he sighed happily. "We should have done that ten years ago."

Kate laughed and pressed another quick kiss against his bottom lip. "Goodnight, Rick; I'll talk to you tomorrow."

* * *

 _A/N: Good news! I've decided to enter a Caskett AU Christmas story into the Castle Winter Hiatus ficathon. Per the rules, I can't start writing until after hiatus begins (next Monday) so maybe you guys will see something Thanksgiving weekend? And I hope to have it done by Christmas, but it's too soon to tell._


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Two nights later Kate once again found herself in her kitchen waiting for Rick to arrive, however at that particular moment she did not have the time to be perusing Facebook to see Maddie's latest posted selfie. Instead, she hurried around between the stovetop, refrigerator and the kitchen table making sure everything was ready for her meal with the writer. Quite frankly she wasn't sure which made her more nervous: their first date in or whether or not her stir fry would turn out as good as the last time she made it (which she was not convinced wasn't a fluke.)

Truth be told she wasn't a terrible cook when she applied herself and followed a recipe, she simply didn't _love_ cooking. Granted, with her busy schedule she rarely had the time, and certainly wasn't interested enough to be adventurous with recipes—unlike her companion that evening. During their lunch date the previous day, he'd confessed to being a self-proclaimed daredevil in the kitchen, always coming up with interesting concoctions, which generally involved creative ways to get his daughter to eat her vegetables.

Kate smiled at the memory of their midday meal the prior day. It had been a quick takeout eaten on a park bench as she needed to fit in the meal between her meetings, but the time she took was well worth it. Had it not been for Rick, she definitely would have simply grabbed something out of the vending machine. Not to mention the fact that she would have smiled a heck of a lot less that day so, really, he was a blessing in more ways than one.

Now, on the cusp of their third date in as many days, Kate found herself smiling practically non-stop. Before meeting up with Rick again, her dating life had been sporadic at best. She'd had a long-term boyfriend during law school, but once they were out of school and focusing on their blossoming careers, the romance fizzled along with their relationship. Since then, nothing had seemed to work out for more than a few months. Really, she had been more focused on her career than her relationship—until she hit the thirty milestone that was. Entering her fourth decade she began thinking more seriously about relationships and a future, though had not met a man she was interested in planning that future with. It appeared that was changing—and quickly.

Promptly on the hour, her companion arrived and greeted her with a quick hug and kiss on the lips. "I just want to apologize before we go any further in case I seem distracted tonight, but my daughter is about to Skype with her mother and I'm assuming it won't go well."

"Oh." Kate began, her brow wrinkling slightly. It was interesting he happened to mention his ex-wife because Kate had been trying to think of a polite and hopefully organic way to broach the subject. Ever since her conversation with Maddie weeks earlier, she had been curious about the end of Rick's marriage and how it related to his present life. "Does…does it usually not go well?"

Castle signed as he leaned against the kitchen counter. "Well, historically it ends in tears more often than not. And it occasionally ends in Meredith and I having a fight over the phone once I've calmed Alexis down and put her to bed. So I guess in a way its best my mother will be the one with her tonight. Sorry," he added quickly, shooting an apologetic expression. "Don't mean to dump all this on you."

Kate shook off his concern. "It's fine. I, ah, actually wanted to ask how big of a part of Alexis's life her mother was."

Castle let out a bitter laugh and accepted the beer Kate handed him. "She's not really…I, ah, I'm not sure how much of this you want to hear."

"I'm the one that asked," she reminded him with a smile.

He bobbed his head. "Well, about a year and a half ago Meredith came to me and informed me that she and the director she was having an affair with were moving to California to make a movie. Sorry—Meredith is an actress; should have led with that."

Kate turned her attention to plating their meals while she took in that information. So, not only had Rick's ex left him, but she had cheated on him as well; that certainly had to be a blow. "Had…had you been having problems or was it a surprise?"

"I was surprised she was moving to California, but otherwise no, not really. Our marriage was never easy, but I always tried to make it work for Alexis. Sadly, when it came right down to it, Meredith was more interested in being herself than being a mother so off to California she went."

Kate slid into the chair across from Castle's. "Has she seen Alexis since—I mean, other than Skype."

"She's only been back once—for Alexis's birthday. I'm actually kind of…glad she doesn't come back more. Sounds awful, right? But it's incredibly difficult to explain broken promises to a four-year-old. And when Meredith left after her birthday…" Castle sighed and shook his head. "It wasn't good. This is fantastic by the way," he added, gesturing towards his plate with his fork.

"Oh thanks," she smiled gently. "Glad you like it."

They ate in silence for a minute before Rick set down his fork and reached for his beer. "Sorry. I, ah, I hope I haven't put a damper on our date by talking about my ex-wife drama."

Kate shook her head. "Not at all. I'm glad, actually. I want to get to know all of you, Rick, and this is part of your story."

He narrowed his eyes at her playfully. "That's my line."

"Sorry," she chuckled, as she had indeed borrowed his comment, one she'd learned their very first night together ten years earlier.

As they continued with their meal, the conversation turned more towards Kate and her career. She could only speak in generalizations about pending and active cases, but that was ok; she didn't want to bore Rick with the intimate and sometimes confusing details of the legal system. Much to her surprise, though, he actually wanted to hear the details; the nitty-gritty and explained this away by saying it was his natural writer's curiosity to gain knowledge about things he knew little about.

With their meal finished, they moved to Kate's couch where each other's lips became the main focus. Kate sat sideways on the couch with her legs tucked under her, one arm around Rick's shoulders, the other hand caressing his cheek. Rick leaned his body into hers, skimming a lazy hand up and down her thigh as their lips met again and again.

When all the feelings bubbling in Kate's chest threatened to overtake her, she leaned back and gave him a gentle smile and a soft laugh as an indication she needed to take a moment to breathe, settle her heart rate, and perhaps return some blood flow to her brain. Rick didn't miss a beat, stroking her flushed cheek with the pad of his thumb. "Have dinner with us Friday night?" he requested.

Her expression brightened and she brought her hand up to place over his, giving it a light squeeze. "Who's 'us'?"

"Me…Alexis and my mother." Kate leaned away from the writer causing his hand to slip down and flop against the back of the couch cushion. This jolt sent a wrinkle across his brow and he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Dinner with your family?" she questioned softly. In her mind, that was a serious step, and she wasn't sure she wanted to take it on their fourth date. Never having dated a man with children before, Kate felt she was in uncharted waters. Rick was a family man and a single parent and she knew that meeting his daughter would need to come sooner than later, but she was surprised he wanted it to be _this_ soon.

"No, dinner with me…and my family will be there. Do…do you have a problem with that?"

"No, no," she said quickly. "If you want me to meet them, I'd be happy to meet them, but…you don't think we're moving too fast?"

His brow creasing a bit deeper he asked, "Do you?" In his mind, it felt natural. And, okay, he certainly would admit that inviting her to have dinner with his family less than a week after their first official date could not classify as moving _slow_ , but too fast? He didn't think so. In fact, with Kate, the phrase seemed to be completely absent of meaning. Being with her felt natural, comfortable. He wanted her in his life so it only seemed natural that she meet his family so she could be in _their_ lives and not just his.

"I don't know," she confessed honestly. She liked him, she _really_ liked him, but…"This whole thing makes me a little nervous."

"Which part?"

She shrugged when the only word on her lips was, "Everything." Instead, she sat for a moment and decided upon the most obvious trepidation. "Well you're, ah, famous for one."

He threw back his head and laughed. "That?!"

Though he responded as though she had said, "You have blue eyes," she held her ground. "Well, you are and it's a little intimidating."

He shook his head. "I'm not intimidating; you're intimidating."

Her jaw dropped. "Me?!"

"You put criminals away!"

She shook her head. "C'mon Rick; I'm being serious."

"So am I. Is that it? Me being famous? Because, if you recall, I was not famous the night we met—far from it. I'm largely the same guy…except instead of two male roommates I have two female ones."

"Rick, I—wait," she stopped when something he said registered in her brain. "You live with your mother?"

"She lives with me," he corrected. When her expression remained blank, he continued. "There's a difference."

"Sure…" she said, though her tone made it clear she didn't know what it was.

"No seriously. She had to move in with me after her ex-husband ran away with all her money."

Not expecting this in the least, Kate let out a half-laugh, half-gasp. "What!?"

Rick waved his hand casually. "Yeah, that's a long story. She's been married a bunch of times, but this last one was a con artists; took Mother for everything she had."

"My god…"

"Yeah, it was…unfortunate, but I like to think of it as a blessing in disguise. All that happened around the time Meredith left and Mother moving in really helped. As much as she drives me absolutely nuts sometimes—I'm sorry _most_ times—her being there for Alexis is invaluable. It's…not an issue, is it?"

Kate smiled to assuage his concerned expression. "No—I was just surprised."

He nodded. "Well, she lives on the second floor of my place so it's kind of like she lives separate."

Kate's brow rose at the descriptor. She didn't know anyone who had a two story apartment in Manhattan. Then again, as her main social circle consisted of other attorneys, cops and some regular Joes, she also realized none of those people made enough money to dream of affording such a home. The famous writer, however, was a different story. "You must have a big apartment."

He shrugged. "It's decent sized. Come to dinner Friday night and see for yourself."

She grazed her teeth over her bottom lip as she looked at him. Taking a deep breath she began, "I don't want you to see my hesitation as a lack of interest. I am interested—very interested. I care about you a lot and that's what's making me cautious."

Reclining back against the sofa, Rick let out a long exhale. "Cautious. Okay. I'm absolutely fine with that. I was going to invite you to spend the night as well, but if-"

"Spend the night!?" Kate spluttered. "With your daughter there?"

He half-laughed. "She won't be in the same room with us, Kate."

The lawyer groaned and covered her face. "Oh god." That's _just_ the mental image she needed: Rick's four-year-old walking in on them while they were—God, she couldn't even finish the thought!

Rick placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Relax; it's fine. We'll be discrete—only if you want to, though. If you want more time I'm fine with that, too. I don't want to rush this and I've known for a decade just how cautious you are."

She spread the fingers covering her face and peeked at him. "What does that mean?"

"It was one of the first things I learned about you," he said with a knowing grin. "You didn't want to use the bathroom in my apartment for fear I'd kidnap you."

Kate laughed loudly at the memory of their very first interaction with each other. "I didn't think you'd kidnap me!"

"Take advantage of?" he offered instead.

With her nose scrunched she replied, "Kinda."

Rick merely shrugged before posing his invitation once more. "So what do you say? Dinner on Friday?"

Kate didn't have to think about it for more than half a second. She reached over and grabbed one of his hands, reveling in the warmth of his touch. "Yes to dinner…and the sleepover."

A smile blossomed on the writer's face. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You're sure? I mean, you can totally change your mind between now and then. I won't-"

"Rick!"

"Yeah?"

"Stop talking." With that, she closed her lips over his once more.

* * *

 _A/N: To answer some questions in the comments: I plan on posting the opening chapter to my ficathon christmas story next weekend, but as this story will be nearly done by that point, the posting of the christmas story should not affect this one. I haven't entirely decided how I'm posting the Christmas story yet... I'm toying with posting it "live" - by that I mean the story takes place in December, so I'd post the chapter on the actual December date the chapter's events occurred on. That sounds like something fun and different. It would mean you wouldn't know when updates are coming, but you could potentially have more than 2 chapters a week. That's an ok trade off, right? :)_


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Kate felt a tremor of nerves travel from her belly and up into her throat as she stepped off the elevator on the fourth floor of Rick's building. She sucked in a deep breath through her nose and pushed it out slowly as she took controlled steps towards his place. Being nervous was natural, she told herself. She wanted to make a good impression on his daughter; it was important for the future.

That morning as she packed her oversized purse with her toiletries and clothes to sleep in, every nerve ending in her body hummed with excitement. Spending the night with Rick had her mind spinning with possibilities. It was, in a way, ten years in the making and if how she felt while kissing him was any indication, she doubted she'd need that oversized shirt to sleep in—and she was totally fine with that.

As the day wore on, uncertainty began to develop—not about Rick, but how to act around his daughter. Alexis was four-and-a-half. What were almost five-year-olds like? She assumed the girl was in pre-school, so they could talk about that. She also did some googling over her lunch break, though in a way it made her feel worse and more overwhelmed. But it was going to be fine—totally fine. It was after all a _family_ dinner; a group event. She was hardly going to be left alone with the girl for an extended time; two other adults would be there as a buffer.

Steeling herself for quite possibly some unexpected twists that evening, Kate raised her left hand and knocked on the door to Rick's apartment. She chewed on her bottom lip for the better part of a minute before the door opened revealing the grinning writer. "Kate! Welcome to Chez Castle. Please come in. I trust you had a good day?"

"Ah, yeah, it was…a Friday at least," she laughed and passed off her coat and bag into his extended hands. With them settled on the coatrack by the door, Rick led the way into the kitchen area where Kate caught her first glimpse of a little girl seated at the island, a pencil clutched in her tiny fist. "Alexis, c'mere I want you to meet someone."

The child set down her pencil and turned in her seat. As her feet did not touch the floor, she swung them wildly and looked at the new woman with slight curiosity.

"Alexis, this is my good friend Miss Kate."

Clasping her hands in front of her, Kate smiled down at the girl. "It's nice to finally meet you, Alexis; I've heard a lot about you from your dad."

Alexis surveyed the older woman quietly for a minute before concluding, "I really like your hair."

Not having expected that, Kate let out a light laugh. "Oh, thank you. I wish I could grow my hair as long as yours is." The brilliant orange locks were nearly down to the little girl's hips, whereas Kate was already thinking about trimming her just-below-the-shoulder cut. She always admired long hair, but could never stand it on herself; it took too much work.

"Daddy always says I should cut it," Alexis said, her eyes darting towards her father's.

He smiled at Kate. "Every time I have to comb the knots out of it. But anyway, Kate can I get you some wine? Dinner should be ready shortly."

"Wine would be great, thanks." Kate stepped up to the kitchen island and observed the white sheet of paper Alexis was drawing on. With no frame of reference, she assumed the vaguely discernable shapes to be typical for a child of that age. "What are you drawing?" she asked politely.

"Just stuff," came Alexis's response. So much for striking up conversation. Fortunately, Kate did not have to work because not a second later, Rick's mother descended the stairs. The elder woman's hair color matched that of the little girl's and Kate could tell from where father and daughter's brilliant blue eye color came immediately. Wearing a purple tunic top and lime green pants, Rick's mother introduced herself to Kate with all the dramatic flair Kate would have expected of her.

"We've heard so much about you, darling; it's wonderful to finally meet."

Shaking the elder woman's hand warmly, Kate said, "Nice to meet you as well."

"Pumpkin, will you please go wash up for dinner?" Rick asked the child as he carried a few steaming bowls to the table.

Suddenly feeling awkward, Kate asked, "Can I help you with anything?"

Rick's mother answered for him. "Of course not, Darling. Just take a seat—enjoy you wine; I know I'll enjoy mine!"

"Remember, Mother; you're putting Alexis to bed tonight," Rick said through a forced smile, his tone indicated they'd had a discussion about the situation previously and he was reminding her about it.

"Richard, please; one glass of wine is hardly a speedbump for me," Martha said with a flippant wave of her hand.

As he passed by her, Rick hissed to Kate, "Sadly, she's not kidding." Kate fought a chuckle.

Once everyone was seated, they began diving into their meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans, all of which Kate found to be positively fantastic not to mention delightful simply because it was comfort food. She continually complimented Rick on his culinary talents, which led to many family stories about mealtime, cooking, and even some cooking fails. Naturally, Kate loved the final category of stories the most.

As Kate chatted with Martha about her latest acting endeavor, their conversation was interrupted by a small argument between the father and daughter. As it turned out, Alexis was not interested in eating her green beans that evening because they were, in her words, "too long." Rick attempted to remedy this by halving them, but Alexis wisely pointed out that they were still the same beans. While shooting an apologetic look to the guest at the table, Rick managed to talk the little girl into eating three beans before giving up and allowing her to just finish her potatoes and meat instead.

"Jokes on her," Rick whispered to Kate later as she helped clear the dinner plates. "I put ground up carrots in that meatloaf—she had no idea!"

Kate chuckled. "Smart Dad. Can I help you wash these or…?"

"Nope, that's Alexis's job. Sweetheart," he said a bit louder, "please bring me your plate when you're finished."

Kate then stepped back and watched the clean-up ritual between the two of them. While standing on a chair, Alexis helped her father by drying off the dishes and silverware he passed to her and stacking them neatly on the counter. At one point, he used his finger to spread some soap suds on her nose and her joyous giggle filled the kitchen.

Kate felt mesmerized watching Rick interact with his daughter. She did not consider herself to have a distant relationship with her father; they got along very well now that she was an adult and not a rebellious teen. However, nothing quite compared to the love between Rick and his daughter. They both lit up completely around each other. Watching that side of him made Kate's chest tighten; this was just another thing she would add to the list of what made him so wonderful.

With the leftovers put away and the dishes drying, Rick led the parade of women into the sitting room and announced, "Book time!" This was met with a cheer from Alexis as she scampered over to a large leather chair seated in front of a wall of bookshelves, which Kate had learned was the exterior wall of the writer's office. "Remember, Pumpkin—just one chapter tonight."

"Fine," Alexis sighed, climbing up in the chair beside her father.

"What are you guys reading?" Kate asked as she took a seat on the end of the nearby couch.

" _Charlotte's Web_ ," Rick replied. "And Alexis is reading it to me."

Kate was stunned by the comment as she recalled reading _Charlotte's Web_ late in elementary school and certainly not before she entered formal education all together. As she listened, she realized Rick had exaggerated slightly. Though Alexis read what she could, her father usually filled in a pronunciation or two in every sentence and their reading would occasionally stop all together when Alexis asked for the definition of a word. Still, Kate was impressed by the young girl's comprehension.

With their chapter done, Rick gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek and sent her up to bed with her grandmother, promising to tuck her in once her teeth were brushed. Once she'd scampered off, he turned to Kate and smiled. "She reads at an advanced level," the lawyer observed. "Why am I not surprised?"

The writer chuckled. "Ah, yeah, that was me—by my encouragement, rather. Had her reading small words before she was three and it just sort of took off from there. She's just really interested in books…guess she gets that from me."

Kate bobbed her head. "Very impressive. She's really something, Rick; you must be an amazing father."

Lowering his gaze to his lap, Rick said, "Well, I can't take all the credit, but thank you that really means a lot." With that, he stood and returned _Charlotte's Web_ to the end table beside the chair. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some dad duties to attend to. Why don't you wait in the study? Feel free to look around."

After letting Kate into his office, Rick jogged up the stairs and found Alexis pulling on her pj's. He mumbled a thank you to his mother for observing the bed time rituals before stepping in and pulling back the light green covers of his daughter's white wooden bed. "Did you have a nice time meeting Miss Kate tonight?"

Alexis climbed inside and turned to him. "She has pretty hair."

Rick couldn't help but chuckle at her second mention of Kate's locks. "She does."

Holding her stuffed bunny by the paws, Alexis asked, "How'd you meet her?"

Rick sat down on the edge of her bed. "We actually met a long time ago—in college. We lost touch for a while, but now we're back to being friends."

"Is she a writer too?"

"No, she's a lawyer; she helps make sure that people who commit crimes are brought to justice."

"Okay."

"Okay," Rick echoed. "Do you have any more questions about Miss Kate?" When Alexis shook her head, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Goodnight, Alexis; I love you."

"Love you too, Daddy."

Once she'd snuggled up with her bunny, Rick slipped out of the room and shut the door behind him. As expected, his mother was waiting for him in the hall. She had agreed to stay upstairs that evening to ensure her son's date continue without any interruption from the tiniest red-head, but Rick knew he would not get away before hearing her opinions. Fortunately, they were positive and she praised him on finding a lovely, interesting, and intelligent woman.

Glad for her approval, Rick descended the stairs once more and found Kate in the study standing in front of a row of all the Derrick Storm books in chronological order. He cleared his throat softly, not wanting to startle her. She didn't look at him, but he saw a soft smile grow on the profile of her face. "I remember the first time I saw your book in a store," she began softly, finally turning to him at the end of the sentence. "It was the summer after we met. I remembered what you said about your book not being out until spring and I'd been looking. When I finally found it, I was so excited that I bought two copies."

They shared a smile before she continued. "I found the website your publisher had set up for you and I subscribed for updates. When I got an email about your next book coming out, I was so happy for you—happy you'd found success. I…" She paused and took a step towards him. "I never expected to see you again so it just became this little anecdote for me. 'Oh, I met him once—before he was famous…'"

"But," Rick continued, closing the gap between them, "you came to my book signing."

A slight blush on her cheeks, she turned away from his. "I felt so ridiculous—and nervous. I'd, ah, I'd actually planned on going to one the previous year, but I chickened out."

"Why?"

She looked back to him and shrugged. "I guess…I guess I was torn. Part of me hoped you'd remember me, but then I thought I'd feel ridiculous if you didn't. And there was a part of me that was convinced you _wouldn't_ remember me and then I would have just felt…" She let her voice drift off.

Rick stepped up so close to her that their toes were nearly bumping, He brought his right thumb and forefinger under her chin and tilted her head up so that their lips met in a sweet kiss. "I'm glad you came to the signing."

Smiling against his lips, she sighed out, "So am I," before kissing him once more. Her arms slid around his waist as their kiss grew more heated, more intimate.

A minute later, Rick pulled back, sighing out her name. She hummed in response. He opened his eyes and gazed down at her, waiting for her eyes to open before saying, "I think I'm already falling in love with you."

Kate's hands squeezed a bit tighter on his back as sparks shot down her spine. "I think I am too."

* * *

"Do you want me to go?" Kate tucked her hands beneath her face as she asked the question. They were each curled up on their sides, facing one another in Rick's bed. Though they had shared a few breathy laughs, hums and sighs, those were the first words spoken since they made love.

Rick brought up his left hand to brush some hair from her forehead. "Definitely not."

"You're sure? I mean, Alexis…"

"Truth?"

She smiled gently at him. "Considering we're both naked…yes, I'd say this is a good place for a truthful conversation."

After giving her a cheeky smile, his expression turned more contemplative. "I guess…I guess I'm kind of in uncharted territory here. I haven't really dated since my divorce. I mean, there were two women, though neither ever spent the night, but now it's different. Now, I want my girlfriend to spend the night."

Kate's eyebrows rose and she fought to keep an absurd grin from bursting onto her face. "Is that what I am?"

"Don't you think so?"

Losing the battle with her cheeks, she let out a chortle. "Yeah I was just making sure."

Rick leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. "Anyway…I will need to find a way to address this with her, but for tomorrow would you mind terribly if we played the 'she fell asleep on the couch' card? Then I can spend tomorrow Googling how to explain dating to a four-year-old without traumatizing her."

Okay, so when he invited Kate to spend the night, he may have been thinking mostly with a part of his anatomy that wasn't his brain. Now that he'd sobered up, so to speak, he decided the situation needed to be treated delicately; the last thing he wanted to do was upset his daughter. As he also did not want to offend his new girlfriend, Rick felt as though he was walking a delicate tightrope. Fortunately, she did not seem fazed.

"I don't mind, Rick, but I can leave; I won't be offended."

He placed a hand atop her shoulder and began dancing his fingertips over her bare arm until goosebumps formed there. "Don't you want some of my excellent Saturday morning brunch?"

Bemused, she asked, "Is that a thing?"

"You're damn right it's a thing."

"Okay," she agreed, though if his dinner was any indication, brunch certainly would be a treat.

"Perfect. Besides," he paused to roll his body over hers once more. She let out a gasp and adjusted her legs so they intertwined with his. "I'm not quite done with you yet."

She ran her index finger down the edge of his jaw and asked deeply, "Is that so, Mr. Castle?"

He groaned and shut his eyes. "Ohhh call me that again. It makes you sound so…lawyer-y." Kate laughed and he lowered his lips to her neck, skimming them across the sensitive flesh until he found her pulse point and began to suck gently. She sighed out his name and brought her left hand up to comb through his hair. After just a moment, he lifted his head and gazed down at her with no small amount of amazement. In many ways, she looked the same as she did a decade earlier—the same as he remembered her—though, if it was even possible, she'd grown more striking. "Ten years, Kate," he sighed out.

She nodded, completely understanding his moment of reminiscence. Bringing both her hands up, she cupped his cheeks and assured him, "It was worth the wait."

* * *

 _A/N: First and foremost I want to say THANK YOU to every one of you. This story now has more "follows" than I've ever had on a story before and I am so shocked/honored/grateful for that so thanks to each and every one of you._

 _Next, a posting schedule update: Saturday I will be posting the first chapter of my hiatus ficathon Christmas fic, **Peace & Joy**, which means I will update RtN on Sunday. There are only 2 chapters left and so the story will finish the following week._

 _Once again, thank you guys so much! See you Saturday. And, for all the Americans, have a great Thanksgiving!_


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The following morning when Kate awoke and stretched she felt and arm tighten around her waist and a kiss fall onto her bare shoulder. She hummed and rolled over to find the smiling writer watching her. He told her she was beautiful when she slept and Kate instantly decided that was the best morning she'd had so far that year—and that was before she had his special pancakes which, as promised, were delightful.

Thankfully, his daughter did not question the, "Oh, she fell asleep on the couch and I felt bad waking her," story she was fed, which both adults were grateful for. Instead, Alexis chatted happily about spending the day watching cartoons and, perhaps, going to the park with her father. Once her belly was full, Kate made her exit, but not before Rick followed her into the hall, kissed her goodbye, and said he'd call her later that evening, after his daughter had gone to bed.

Once back at home, Kate continued with her regular Saturday routine of laundry, cleaning up her apartment, and doing some research for her upcoming cases. Shortly after four, Kate began the trek to her parent's Long Island home, where she was expected for dinner. As it had been several weeks since she'd been out to visit them, the dinner plans had been set before she actively began dating the writer, but as they had a date the prior evening, the timing worked out well.

Per usual, Kate texted a message to her father when her train departed so he would know what time to pick her up at the station. Unlike when they lived in Manhattan, Kate could not merely get off at the closest subway stop. Well, she could, but doing so would have resulted in a nearly forty minute walk before she reached her parent's home in Plainview.

As she grew up in a downtown apartment, Kate did not think of their bi-level with a fenced in back yard as her home, but merely a place her parent's lived. One of their guest rooms was technically hers as she was one of the only people that stayed in it, but other than the bedframe, none of the objects in it matched those from her childhood. She didn't mind, though; she had her own apartment and her own life. Most importantly, her mother seemed to be doing much better after moving out of the city seven years earlier, and that's all that mattered to Kate.

During their short drive back to the house, Kate's father Jim chatted with her about the summer class he'd just begun teaching and the students who were less than enthused with spending the month of June in a classroom rather than at a beach. Upon arriving at their home, Kate greeted her mother with a warm hug and gave the family cat a scratch behind the ears.

"So, Katie, how's the writer?" her mother asked with a certain sparkle in her eye as they sat down to dinner.

Kate didn't even bother to hide her grin. "Rick is good; really good. I had dinner last night with his mother and daughter."

Johanna's brow rose. "Really? So soon?"

Kate let out a breathy chuckle. "That's what I thought when he first invited me, but honestly? It didn't feel soon. I mean, Rick kept it casual—introducing me as his good friend, saying that I fell asleep on the couch and that's why I was still there in the-"

"Katherine." Her father interrupted the story as he shut his eyes tightly and remained very still as though trying to rid himself of nausea.

Her cheeks turning a shade pinker, Kate shot her mother a side-look before saying quickly, "Sorry Dad." She had, of course, inadvertently broken the unspoken rule of never mentioning or alluding to any scenarios in which she might possibly be having sex.

Clearing her throat, Johanna tried to move the conversation along. "So you like him then? I mean, you like him as he is now, not just the guy you remembered from school?" As she had recalled that being one of her daughter's largest concerns, she wanted to make sure it was no longer an issue.

Bobbing her head Kate said, "I like him more than I ever thought I could. He's…incredible and, incredibly, he seems to feel the same about me."

"He'd be a fool not to," her father said wisely.

She gave her father an appreciative look before dusting her fingers across her brow. "I just…I don't know. The logical part of me—the lawyer part of me—thinks we're moving too fast because it's all so new yet I've already met his family…but another part of me thinks there's nothing wrong with that because it feels right, which makes the first part of me think I'm going crazy," she added with a laugh.

"And what does your gut say?"

Kate gazed up at her mother, who had always been a large proponent of the "Go with your gut" mentality. Taking a deep breath, she let out the words she'd been nervously thinking for days. "My gut? My gut says that last Monday night I went on my last first date."

* * *

Sitting at the desk in his office, Rick cradled his chin in his left palm and stared contemplatively at his laptop screen. For the previous hour while his daughter was playing quietly with her Barbie dolls and his Star Trek action figures (according to what he overheard, there was an intergalactic problem that only those from Planet Barbie could solve) he had been Googling advice on talking to young children about their parents dating and, quite frankly, the results were not good. At least not what he'd been hoping for.

The prior evening after Alexis went to bed he'd called Kate so they could review their days. At that time, he explained that the afternoon had gotten away from him and he had not been able to do the research he wanted, but he was absolutely going to do it on Sunday. Thus, after he cleaned up lunch and had Alexis occupied, and he settled in for some Googling, expecting to find a website explaining exactly what to say to put his child at ease and not stomp around his house, slamming doors and saying she hated him. Yet, like everything else with parenting, it was never going to be that easy.

Perhaps his first mistake was looking up parenting message boards, on which the craziest, most extreme parents seemed to congregate. He read horror story after horror story about parents either dating or remarrying and their children completely resenting them for it. Still more stories from men detailed their children viewing their girlfriend as some sort of Disney villain-esque future step-mother, thereby prohibiting any sort of positive relationship to form.

Growing more and more concerned, Rick turned away from the message boards and forces on articles on parenting websites or, at least, semi-reputable blogs. While these seemed to have a more positive view, the overarching theme was that a parent should not introduce their significant other to their child until things were serious. What he read explained this was done because children—particularly those under five—could grow quite attached very quickly to that new person in their life and if things did not work out between the parent and their significant other, the child could become upset and confused and, in extreme cases, feel abandoned by the person abruptly removed from their life.

Huffing out a breath into his hand, Rick thought about his decision to invite Kate over to meet his daughter on their fourth date. Clearly, if he went by what the blogs were saying, that was the absolute worst thing he could have done. And, okay, he had introduced Kate as his friend, so if she never showed up again Alexis obviously would not be traumatized in any way so as of that moment he had not done any damage. The question remained, though: how should he proceed? Rather, what was the best way to proceed in terms of what was best for Alexis?

Thinking about Kate and what he knew about her, if he explained that he wanted to take things slow between them—slower than they'd gone so far—he believed she would agree to it. That would mean her coming over only after Alexis went to bed and her not spending the night (despite being under five, Rick's daughter was intelligent and he knew she'd eventually grow suspicious of the 'oh no she fell asleep on the couch again!' routine). It would also mean excluding her from family events so that she and Alexis spent limited time together (if any time at all) for…weeks? Months? He had no idea how long.

By doing that, he would be sure to protect his daughter from any unnecessary heartache and, as a father, protecting his daughter was always his main goal. Yet, Rick did not feel satisfied with doing that. How could he? He cared about Kate. He wanted Kate in his life—all aspects of his life. If they had a family movie night, he wanted Kate to be there. If they spent the afternoon throwing Frisbees in the park, he wanted Kate to be involved. If they explored a new museum or went to a festival in the park, he wanted Kate to join them.

The articles he read stressed not introducing a child to a significant other until the relationship was serious, but Rick _was_ serious about Kate; there was no doubt in his mind. For the prior decade he'd thought of her as "the one that got away" and now that he'd caught her again, there was no way he'd let her escape without being one hundred percent certain they weren't meant to be; meant to form a life together. That was, of course, his opinion, which left one clear notion in his mind: before going any further, he needed to know how Kate felt about them, about him and, most importantly, about his daughter.

* * *

Monday evening when Kate arrived at Rick's apartment shortly before nine p.m. he greeted her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. After a long internal debate the day before, Rick decided that he wanted to have a conversation with Kate in person about the future of their relationship. She had a Monday evening dinner commitment, which worked out fine for him because their conversation was an adult one—one that needed had sans his daughter's curious ears. Kate agreed to come to his place after the little girl was in bed, though did not know the serious nature of their conversation prior to arrival.

"Can I get you something to drink? Wine perhaps?"

"Already had some of that at dinner—possibly a little too much," she told him with a slight laugh. Maddie was never shy with a wine bottle that was for sure. Particularly because she knew liquoring up her friend resulted in a more free-flowing conversation and that usually meant details about her sex life Kate normally would not divulge.

"That's fine. Maybe even good, because I, ah, wanted to talk about something."

Kate's brow wrinkled as he led the way into his office. "Is everything okay?"

He bobbed his head and gestured for her to sit on the loveseat beneath the bookshelves. "I think so. I was…I told you how I was going to research this single parent dating stuff so I didn't, you know, cause my child permanent psychological damage."

She let out a breathily laugh at his melodramatic description. "Right."

"And I might be being a bit paranoid…I did stumble on a website full of horror stories. Most of them were about what we'll call less than positive reactions of children under five to their parent's new girlfriend/boyfriend."

Kate folded her hands together and gazed at the writer. "What are you trying to say, Rick? That you don't want-"

"NO!" he said quickly, placing one of his large hands over her folded ones. "Absolutely not. It's just…" He paused and took a deep breath. "This may sound totally insane because we've technically only been dating a week, right? But, I…this feels serious. Is it serious? Or am I about to scare you away?"

Though her heart rate sped, Kate shook off his second concern. "You say we've been dating a week like we met barely eight days ago, but we've been talking for two months. Not to mention that night ten years ago that neither of us really forgot about."

"Right. I know that. But—sorry. I just feel so shitty at this since I was married for five years. What's dating like again?" he asked in a pathetic attempt to lighten the atmosphere.

Kate offered him a smile and moved her hands so that they sandwiched his between them. "Stop worrying, Rick; you're doing fine. And to answer your question: this is serious for me; I never thought of this as a casual thing. We're exclusive and I never thought otherwise."

He gave her an appreciative look. "That's nice to hear, but that wasn't exactly what I was getting at. Again, at the risk of scaring you off, let me ask you this: are you open to the idea of children? I mean, step-children. Because if you're not then-"

"Rick," Kate said, fighting to laugh at the borderline terrified expression that was forming across the writer's face. "I know you have a child—I've met her; she's lovely. And I know she will always be with you. I do understand how parenting works."

His cheeks turning pink he said, "I didn't mean to imply you didn't."

"I know, I just…I'm not sure what you want me to say. I don't have children. I haven't the slightest clue how to be a parent or a step-parent—not that we're there yet—but I'm definitely willing to figure it out. And," she added as her smile grew, "to answer your first question: I've always wanted kids—several, in fact."

A grim blossomed on his face. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she bobbed her head. Okay, so it was too soon—definitely too soon—to be seriously thinking about being a step-mother, but the thought had crossed her mind. Begrudgingly she had to admit that it had because of Maddie.

After her first date with Rick she asked herself a simple question: he's a full-time parent, am I ok with that? And the answer was a resounding yes. After meeting the girl, she was even more certain. Throughout her teen years and early twenties whenever she thought about her future a husband and children were always part of it. Of course, at that time she had not pictured a step-child but in her mind that was a non-issue.

"Growing up as an only child was fine, but I was always envious of my friends who had siblings so I definitely want more than one child."

Rick nodded; he had similar feelings when he was growing up as well. Giving her hands a gentle squeeze, he asked his next question almost timidly. "Did we just have a conversation about our future on…what? Our fifth date?"

Kate laughed. "I think we did." If he had said to her, "Let's get married tomorrow," she definitely would have had to put the brakes on, but their hypothetical conversation did not bother her one bit. None of her conversations with him did. Though it still continued to amaze her, she absolutely felt like she and Rick had known each other for the prior decade and not met once and then had ten years of separation. She had never experienced such a connection so quickly with anyone before and while that in of itself was a little scary, she knew to trust her gut and her gut told her what she had with Rick was something for the long term.

"So…wedding band or DJ?" he quipped. Kate laughed harder and leaned into him, nudging him with her shoulder. He pressed a kiss onto her head. "Shouldn't this have been scary?"

Gazing up at him, she shook her head slowly. "I think it means something that it wasn't."

He mirrored the smile on her face as he said, "I do too."

* * *

 _A/N: this story has one chapter left, plus an epilogue. I will post one Tuesday and the other Thursday._


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Richard Castle paced the entryway of his apartment, his fingers raking through his hair every few steps. With a deep exhale he stopped, glanced down at his phone and, seeing that there were no new messages from when he looked before (about two minutes earlier) he grumbled unintelligibly and continue to pace. Simply put: this had not been a good day.

That particularly Thursday had begun with promise. Though Kate had not spent the night, the prior evening before turning in the two of them had exchanged some saucy text messages making promises on what would happen the next time they were together. Rick slept through his alarm, which meant getting Alexis up, dressed and fed before pre-school became a rushed affair, but after dropping her off he was greeted with a sweet text from his girlfriend further motivating him to return to his apartment and continue outlining his new book—the first in what he hoped would be a new series; one he was very excited about.

As per his usual writing routine, Rick had his television tuned to CNN for background noise. For the most part, he paid very little attention to what was on the screen. Occasionally, he would stare absentmindedly at the news ticker if he was thinking through a scene or lines of dialog, but that was about the extent of his interaction. However, that day, a breaking news bulletin shortly before one p.m. caught his attention.

"We have just received word of a shooting incident at the New York District Attorney building. At this time we are receiving reports of multiple casualties and we have reporters on the scene trying to determine if this is an isolated incident or considered an act of terrorism."

For half a minute, Rick stared slack-jawed at the screen before turning back to his computer so violently that he flung his wireless mouse across the desk. Retrieving it, he began clicking frantically on an internet browser and bringing up all of Manhattan's local news sites. Sure enough, he had heard CNN correct: there was an active shooter in Kate's building.

Rick had immediately tried to call her, but the call went direct to voice mail. He left a frantic, "Please call me!" message, but only waited three minutes before he began calling again and again. Finally, a very stressful thirty-three minutes after his initial call, he received the text _I'm ok; I'll call you when I can_ from her.

Though this did assuage his initial panic, Rick was not satisfied until two hours later when he received her call. In a haggard tone, Kate explained that from what they could tell, a husband and wife were on trial for a variety of charges including tax fraud and embezzlement. Though it was unclear what led to the incident, the husband had managed to sneak a gun into the building and shoot both his wife and their lawyer. One of them had died at the scene (though Kate wasn't sure which) and the other was in critical condition at last report.

Naturally Rick was stunned and expressed concern for her wellbeing. After going back and forth several times, Kate ultimately agreed to go directly to his place once she was able to leave the office. Rick had barely been home from picking up Alexis for more than ten minutes when she messaged him to say she was leaving work and would be there shortly. He'd speedily fed his hungry child with a grilled cheese sandwich and had been pacing the entryway waiting for his girlfriend's arrival ever since.

When he heard a soft taping at the door, Rick nearly ran through it in his haste to get there. He grappled with the handle for several seconds before yanking the door open and pulling the exhausted looking woman in the hallway into his arms. "Oh my god, Kate; I was so worried!"

"I'm fine, Rick," she sighed into his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his back. "I told you I was fine."

"Yes, but before that. When I didn't know what happened." He pulled back and brought his hands up to cup her face. "I'm so glad you're okay." With that, he leaned down and gave her a sound kiss.

Their lips had barely been touching for five seconds before a loud shriek of, "DAD!" was heard.

Startled by the sudden noise both adults jumped. Once separated, they looked down to see a very scandalized red-head standing at the edge of the kitchen. "Alexis, what is it?"

"You _kissed_ her!" she said to her father.

"I…" Shit. He had kissed Kate. And, as far as Alexis knew, at that point Kate was just his "good friend." Rick had been putting off the "I'm in a relationship" conversation until the weekend, but it appeared that was no longer an option.

Not waiting for her father to stammer out a reply, the girl folded her arms over her chest. "I thought you only kissed Mommy."

Well, this certainly wasn't going as he hoped. Turning back to Kate, he gave her an apologetic look. "Could you please give us a minute?" She gave him a soft smile and bobbed her head before walking over to the sitting room. Rick approached his daughter and crouched down so he was eye level with her.

"Alexis. Remember, Pumpkin? We talked about this. Mommy and Daddy don't kiss anymore because we're divorced." Though it had been very difficult not to mention emotionally draining to explain divorce to a four-year-old, Rick felt he had managed the task, though typically whenever Meredith visited the waters muddied. It appeared this was another time when her youth resulted in a struggle with the concept.

The little girl turned her eyes towards the ground. "But mommies and daddies kiss. Does that mean Kate's gonna be my new mommy?"

Side-stepping that question, Rick clarified for her, "It's not just mommies and daddies who kiss, Alexis. I know you're a little too young to understand this right now, but Kate and I are dating. Dating means that…well, we're friends, but we're trying to become better friends."

The little girl clasped her hands behind her and swung her shoulders back and forth as she considered this. "Dating means you kiss?"

"Yes."

"And eat dinner together?"

"Yes."

"What else?"

Rick smiled as he looked into the innocent blue eyes of his child. _Things you'll hopefully never find out about until you're thirty_ he answered to himself before saying, "Well, you spend time together. Like today. Today Kate had a very bad day so she came here to be with us and we're going to make sure she eats a nice dinner and maybe watch a movie and we're going to be extra nice to her. Does that sound ok?" When she bobbed her head, he continued. "And sweetie? If any of this ever makes you upset or uncomfortable I want you to tell me, okay? I don't want you to be uncomfortable around Kate and she doesn't want that either. Does that sound good?"

"Okay, Daddy," she agreed cheerfully.

Placing his hands on her shoulders, he gave them a gentle rub. Their conversation had gone better than expected, though he fully expected the topic to repeat itself several times in the coming days. "Do you have any more questions?"

"Nope."

He bobbed his head. "Good. Now why don't we go say hello to Miss Kate?"

The lawyer sat with her ankles crossed and hands folded in her lap for the duration of the conversation. Due to her close proximity, she had heard all of what was said and smiled softly at the way Rick had handled the situation. When the little girl bounced up in front of her, Kate smiled her first smile of the afternoon.

"Hi Miss Kate."

"Hello Alexis."

"I'm sorry you had a bad day."

"Thank you."

"Would you like to watch _The Little Mermaid_ with me?"

"Ah, Alexis," Rick jumped in, but Kate smiled up at him and then down to the little girl.

"That sounds nice; thank you."

As he sensed she was about to go scampering off for the DVD, Rick caught her around the waist and scooped her up. "Hold on there, Ariel; let's make sure Kate gets something to eat first, okay?"

"Okay!" she agreed happily before claiming a spot on the sofa and staring at the blank television impatiently.

Kate stood from the couch and followed her boyfriend into the kitchen. "I can leave," she assured him quietly.

His brow rose. "Why on earth would you do that?"

She glanced tentatively back towards the sitting rom. "If Alexis isn't-"

"She's fine," Rick assured her. "And I don't want you to go." To solidify this, her placed a hand on her hip and pulled her in for a kiss.

Though she kissed him back, Kate's expression remained tentative. "But…what if she changes her mind. What if she doesn't-"

"Stop," he said gently. "Stop worrying. I truly have no idea what the future holds for us, but I know that we're going to figure it out together."

* * *

When Kate arrived at Rick's place that evening she wasn't sure what to expect. She'd appreciated his invitation and was glad not to be going home alone after such an emotionally trying day. She would have simply been satisfied with a kiss and hug from him and perhaps to curl up in his embrace for twenty minutes or so before leaving for the night. What she did not expect, however, was to be practically in tears from laughter from the father-daughter duo's reenactment of what they believed to be "missing scenes" from _The Little Mermaid_. She was sure as long as she lived she would never forget Rick's interpretation of Ursula the Sea Witch.

After Rick had forced his daughter up to bed (something she protested greatly), Kate aided in cleaning up the living area: carrying the popcorn bowls back to the kitchen, picking up the pillows, and returning the DVD to its proper place on the movie shelf. As she did so, she reflected on the evening and how her life had changed since the writer had entered it once more.

Before rekindling what she had with Rick, Kate would not have classified her life as unhappy. She worked long hours, but was happy with her job. She had friends and, in many ways, lived the exact life she wanted, yet she also knew something was missing. Rather, someone. As it turned out, she was missing two someone's and the inexplicable thing they brought with them: a constant source of light, even during her darkest moments.

"Well, lesson learned – I have to keep things more low key on school nights. She did _not_ want to go to bed tonight!" Rick said as he returned to the sitting room. "You—oh," he stopped walking and gazed around the tidied area. "You didn't have to clean up."

She shrugged. "It was the least I could do after you fed me and put on that entertaining show."

"Oh, well," he waved his hand casually. "I'm just glad you're here, Kate."

Instead of responding verbally, Kate stepped forward and pulled him into a searing kiss, running her hands through the hair and the back of his head until he circled her waist with his arms and drew her in tightly. When she pulled back, he hummed and asked, "What was that for? Not that I'm complaining."

She gazed up at him, her eyes sparkling, and said, "I love you."

Rick's chest expanded as he sucked in breath from her unexpected admission. He felt the same; he was certain of it. The horrible thoughts flashing through his mind during the half hour he didn't know if she was shot or injured or hiding in terror had confirmed it. Still, he was surprised especially since for the first time in a relationship, he was not the one saying those three words first. "I love you, too."

She smiled and kissed him again. "And thank you for tonight—you have no idea how much I needed it and I…What?" she laughed nervously at his broadening grin.

He shook his head as an almost silly giggle escaped his lips. "Nothing, really I just…love you and I'm so happy you came to my book signing that day."

She stood up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Resting their foreheads together she said, "Me too."

* * *

 _A/N: Ah, the final chapter - I hope you guys enjoyed this quick, fluffy story. The epilogue will be posted Thursday. :) THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading/reviewing/following!_


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

 _September 2015_

"Mama!"

Kate groaned inwardly when the cheerful cry of her child tore her from sleep. What time was it? It felt as though she'd _just_ fallen asleep but…damn, the room was light, wasn't it?

"Mama?" The cry came again. This time, questioning. The mattress squeaked under the weight of a new addition and almost instantly speedy footsteps were heard.

"Whoa, Jimmy, hold on there buddy." Rick's hushed voice was the next she heard. "Don't wake Mommy; she's very tired."

"I'm awake," Kate sighed out through a yawn. She rolled over just in time to see her two-year-old's face brighten and him leap out of his father's arms and back onto the bed.

"Mama!"

Rick shot his wife an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I thought-"

She shook him off as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Immediately, the dark haired little boy lay his head down against her thigh. Kate combed her hands through his hair as she spoke. "I thought you wanted to get some writing done anyway?"

"Ah yes," he beamed at the thought of his newest series based on the most incredible woman he'd ever met (and married). "The adventures of Nikki Heat, lawyer extraordinaire. C'mon Jimmy; let's go into my office so Mommy can wake up."

Jimmy popped his head up and the azure eyes that matched his father's gazed into hers. "Mama sleepy?"

She stroked his face with her fingertips. "Yes, dear; a little bit."

He tilted his head to the side and asked, "Why?"

Rick leaned over the edge of the bed and snagged the trouble maker; he giggled. "Remember, bud? Mommy has to sleep a lot so your little brother or sister can grow up nice and big and strong—just like you."

"Exactly," Kate said, rubbing her barely-there baby bump. She felt as though she'd run a marathon the previous day, but her work day had not been any more stressful than usual. She definitely had not been this tired when she was pregnant with Jimmy, but then again she was nearly three years older.

"Now c'mon, let's go and find your sister so-"

Jimmy scrambled out of his father's arms, jumped to the floor and raced out of the room chanting, "'lexi! 'lexi!"

Rick chuckled as he gazed down at his still-sleepy wife. "You never know: maybe we'll get lucky and the next one will like to sleep in."

Kate let out a breathy laugh. "We can only hope."

Smiling, he leaned over the edge of the bed and gave her a kiss. "Morning, beautiful. Your decaf is in the kitchen when you're ready for it."

She grinned up at him, both hands resting palms flat against her stomach. "Have I recently told you that you're the best husband in the world?"

"Recently? I don't think so, but it's always nice to have the confirmation."

"Well you are. _The best_. Husband in the world. And the best father in the world. And the best writer in the world," she listed as she grinned.

His gave her a look as he knew she was teasing. "Slow down there Kate. If my ego gets any bigger we're going to have to buy a bigger apartment for my head to fit into."

She laughed and slid from the bed. "Fair point. You're only the second best writer in the world." She stood up on her toes and planted a smacking kiss on his lips before winking. "Patterson is better."

"Oh c'mon!" he yelped as she sashayed her way towards the kitchen. "That was just cruel!"

* * *

 _A/N: I really can't thank everyone enough for reading and reviewing this fic. It was meant to be a sweet, short fluffy story and I'm glad to see everyone enjoyed it._

 _As for what's next: I will only be posting Peace & Joy in December because that fic will be posted more frequently than just twice a week, but after that I think I'll post my other rom-com fic. _

_Thanks again!_


End file.
